Akhil Kumar (right) and Mauritius’ Louis Julie during the bantamweight 54kg final bout in Melbourne on Saturday. (AFP)

Melbourne: Akhil Kumar gifted India a rare boxing gold, but a malfunctioning pistol denied shooter Samresh Jung a slice of history at the 18th Commonwealth Games here on Saturday.

Indian women won a lucky silver in 4x400m relay, while surrendering the hockey gold to Australia, as India maintained their fourth place in the tally at the mega event which is poised for a grand close on Sunday.

Two more silvers came from boxing, and shuttler Chetan Anand fought bravely to secure the third place in the men’s singles to boost the nation’s medal count to 21 gold, 17 silver and 11 bronze medals.

However, it was not all smiles for India as the Indian women rhythmic gymnasts were eliminated in the qualification rounds of the all-around team event.

Akhil outpunched Louis Richard Bruno Julie of Mauritius 20-12 in the 54kg bantamweight final category, riding on an initial blitzkrieg when he opened up a big 6-0 lead.

Akhil fired on all cylinders as he landed left and right hooks and a punch to the Mauritian’s head. Though Julie put up a valiant fight in the next three rounds, the initial deficit was too large for him to make up and the Indian’s defence was too sound for him to breach.

The bout in the second, third and fourth rounds were much closer as scores of 5-4, 6-4 and 3-4 would suggest, but the Indian, who turns 25 in two days’ time, always had a comfortable lead.

The only previous Commonwealth Games boxing gold to have come India’s way was bagged by Mohammad Ali Qamar in the light-flyweight category at the previous edition in Manchester.

However, the other two Indian pugilists on show at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre had to be content with silver medals as they went down in their championship bouts. Vijender lost to Bongani Mwelase of South Africa in the 69kg welterweight category 26-33, while Harpreet Singh found local favourite Bardley Michael Pitt too tough to handle in the 91kg heavyweight category and gave way 10-25.

At the end of the boxing competition, India came out with a haul of one gold, two silvers and two bronze medals which put them in third place in the ring, behind England and Australia. Four years ago they had returned with a gold, a silver and a bronze.

The result in the welterweight title bout was a repeat of the one at the Commonwealth Boxing Championships in Glasgow last year where Vijender failed to get past his South African opponent.

Amidst high drama, India were elevated to the silver medal in the women’s 4x400m relay when the original winners England were disqualified.

The quartet of Rajwinder Kaur, Chitra Soman, Manjit Kaur and Pinki Pramanik, who came home in 3:29.57 seconds, had initially finished third but profited after the English team of Kimberly Wall, Nicola Sanders, Natasha Danvers and Christine Ohuruogu was thrown out for lane crossing.

A spirited Indian effort went in vain as hosts Australia snatched a narrow 1-0 win in the final to bag the gold in women’s hockey event.

A late goal by skipper Nicole Hudson enabled the Australians to dethrone reigning champions India, who had to be satisfied with the silver.

Meanwhile, Samresh Jung’s dream of matching Commonwealth Games record of six gold lay in tatters after a malfunctioning pistol put paid to his hopes in the 25m standard fire pistol event on Saturday.

Jung, who was aiming to clinch his sixth gold at the 18th edition of the quadrennial event, ended up a dismal ninth after tallying 551 points (194+179+178).

The 35-year old Indian, who had earlier missed out on the gold in the 25m centre fire pistol in a shoot-off, said the problem with his equipment surfaced during training on Saturday.

“I had this problem in my training yesterday. I had it overhauled and then used it. But this morning, in the very second shot it started giving problem. It did not fire at all on seven occasions,” the CISF inspector from Delhi said.

Chetan Anand fended off a tough challenge from Aamir Ghaffar of England to grab the bronze medal in the men’s singles badminton on Saturday.