Vizag runburst echoes in this 2-room house in Ranchi colony

Just minutes before, their ‘‘hero’’ Mahendra Singh Dhoni had just cracked his maiden one-day hundred against Pakistan. And by the time the 23-year-old wound up his whirlwind 148 off 123 balls, virtually sealing the match for India, it was as if the whole of Ranchi was out on the streets, celebrating.

But behind the noise, the quiet, proud smile on Pan Singh’s face spoke the loudest. For the father, who left his village 47 years ago to strike it big ‘‘in the city’’, Dhoni’s ton was a huge weight off his shoulders.

‘‘I was always short of money. But whenever he needed any cricket material, I would cut down on household expenses to buy things for him,’’ said Singh, who retired as a Class IV employee of SAIL subsidiary, MEACONs Ltd.

For mother Devki, who sat glued to the TV with her husband watching ‘‘Mahi’’ bat, it was ‘‘the happiest day’’ of her life. ‘‘We are very proud of our son,’’ she said.

Back in Visakhapatnam, the match over and a cake cut in his honour at the team hotel, Dhoni retired to his room to be alone with his thoughts. To savour the moment, and to touch base with Ranchi, with his parents, to whom he dedicated his man of the match award.

His day had begun with skipper Sourav Ganguly—relying on gut feeling—promoting him up the order and dropping himself down. And it ended in Dhoni becoming only the second Indian ODI keeper—after Rahul Dravid—to score a century.

‘‘I am a strokeplayer as well, so it was good to watch someone like Virender Sehwag play some shots and ease the pressure on me, because I hadn’t scored much in the previous match,’’ he said. And soon enough, he hit his first boundary and ‘‘felt a lot better’’. ‘‘When I was batting I could also sense that the dressing room atmosphere was changing,’’ said Dhoni.

All this while, back home in Shyamli Colony, it was bhangra time for the Singh family’s neighbours, and Dhoni’s classmates at the DAV School nearby. ‘‘Cricket was his passion. He played it whenever and wherever he could, even on the street outside his flat,’’ said Ranjit Kumar, a neighbour. Others recalled the time Dhoni used to do ‘‘double duty’’—at the football field as a goalie and behind the wickets.

The secret of his success? Mother Devki answers with a wide smile: ‘‘He drinks more than a litre of buffalo milk every day.’’