BIRMINGHAM: The Indian women's team defeated New Zealand 15-11 in its first match of the triples lawn bowls event in the ongoing Commonwealth Games here on Tuesday.
The trio of Tania Choudhary (lead), Pinki (second) and Rupa Rani Tirkey (skip) proved to be far superior than the Kiwi team of Nicole Toomey (lead), Tayla Bruce (second) and Val Smith (skip).
India was leading 6-2 after the sixth end, but the New Zealanders levelled the scores after the ninth end.
The Indian team, however, did not allow its opponents to stage a comeback and kept surging ahead to eventually win the tie.
The triples team will face England later in the day and is also scheduled to play Niue on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in the women's pair event, the Indian team comprising Lovely Choubey (lead) and Nayanmoni Saikia (skip) went down to New Zealand 18-9.
It was a neck-to-neck contest till end 12 when the two teams were tied at 9-9, but then, the Kiwi team comprising Selina Goddard (lead) and Katelyn Inch (skip) put up an improvised show to emerge victorious.
On Wednesday, the women's pair will be up against Niue and South Africa and will aim to advance to the quarter-finals.