Commonwealth Games: England gymnasts edged into silver

The England team, with reserve Becky Wing, celebrate their silver medal

England's gymnasts were beaten into the silver medal position by Australia for the second day in succession in Delhi.

After disappointment for the men's team on Monday, the quartet of Charlotte Lindsley, Jocelyn Hunt, Imogen Cairns and Laura Edwards had the same result.

The English ladies totalled 158.200 points across the four apparatus - vault, asymmetric bars, floor and beam, with Australia triumphant on 163.700.

Canada were third on 154.750 with Malaysia fourth and Scotland in fifth.

Defending champions Australia fielded a full-strength team but England chose to rest double world champion Beth Tweddle ahead of the World Championships in Rotterdam on 16 October.

The silver medal matched the result achieved by the English team at the Games in Melbourne four years ago and Cairns said: "It's amazing, fantastic. We didn't expect anything but we did think we could get a medal if we all did our job."

Becky Wing, a late replacement for Marisa King, had to be restricted to the role of reserve after waking up with a fever.

"I had to choose whether to come or not," she said. "But I decided to come and be there for everybody."

Cairns had planned to retire after the Games following an arduous battle with injuries, but admits she will now rethink and could yet compete at the London Olympics in 2012.

"It was never an aim. It was just this," said the 21-year-old said.

"I'll take it competition by competition, step by step and we'll see."

The Portishead gymnast, who needed two operations on an ankle problem following the 2008 Beijing Olympics, secured a place in the individual all-around final and the separate apparatus finals as the team final doubled as a qualifying competition.

She led England's scoring on three of the four disciplines and progressed in third place behind Australia duo Lauren Mitchell and Emily Little, while Hunt went through in fourth.

Edwards also went through after finishing seventh but Lindsley missed out, despite posting a score good enough for 11th, as only three gymnasts from each nation could qualify.