From Delhi University cricket captain to CWG 2022 lawn bowls gold medallist, Pinki says 'we had to do it'

Commonwealth Games said to themselves: "Iss baar to karna hai" (we have to do it this time). And they won a historic gold. India listened to Rupa Rani Tirkey very carefully on live broadcast. She is the 'Skip' of the Indian 'Women's Fours' lawn bowls team, comprising Lovely Choubey (Lead), Pinki (Second) and Nayanmoni Saikia (Third) as the other three members. That's the order in which they bowl. The 'Skip' gets the last turn to bowl. Rupa the 'Skip', who is a District Sports Officer from Ranchi, was telling her teammates how to release the ball and what line to bowl so that it turns and ends up closer to the 'Jack'. Watching a sport for the first time is like reading credits rolling on the screen: who is who and what is what? The 'Jack' is a yellow ball. The players have to bowl (the balls) in a way that they turn and roll up closest to the jack. The team that has more balls closer to the jack compared to the opponents' gets the most points at the completion of an 'End'. The distance between the Jack and the balls is measured by a device called 'box measure'.

(A player using the 'box measure' to mark the distance from the Jack, i.e., the ball in yellow - Getty Images)The credits roll again. An 'End' is lawn bowls' synonym for a 'round'. A 'Women's Fours' match has 15 Ends, in which each team members bowls two balls per End. The other three formats are Singles, Pairs and Triples. Facing the team from South Africa, who were runners-up in the 2018 CWG 'Women's Fours' event, the Indian players had a big task on their hands. Having already secured a historic medal by entering the final can sometimes alter focus. But if Rupa's one throw during the semifinal against New Zealand was anything to go by, this Indian team was in