Malaysia settle for lawn bowl silver in women's fours

Malaysian captain Norhashimah Ismail failed to inspire her team to a gold in the women's fours.

GLASGOW: Malaysia blew a good chance of landing a Commonwealth Games gold medal in the women’s fours final.

The national team, comprising Norhashimah Ismail, Emma Firyana Saroji, Nur Fidrah Noh and Azlina Arshad, lost 14-9 to the South African quartet in the final to settle for the silver at the Kelvingrove Lawns Bowls Centre on Sunday.

The Malaysians have only themselves to blame for the missed chance. They held a comfortable 9-4 lead at the ninth end when, suddenly, their game fell flat.

The Malaysians never recovered South Africa, led by Esme Steyn, Santjie Steyn, Tracy-Lee and Susan Nel, slowly but surely crawled back into the game.

By the 10th end, South Africa had cut the lead to just one point (9-8) before levelling the score at 9-9 at the following end.

After that, it was all over as the South Africans dominated and the Malaysians faltered.

Earlier in the semi-finals, the Malaysians had defeated New Zealand 13-11.

Malaysia will now be counting on the men’s pairs of Mohd Fairuz Izwan Muin and Mohd Hizlee Abdul Rais to nail the gold when they take on Scotland’s Paul Forster and Alex Marsahal in the final on Monday.