Villagers celebrate the U-19 cricket world cup victory at Senduar on Sunday. Telegraph picture

Chhapra, Aug. 26: This Sunday was different for Senduar villagers in Saran. Instead of sleeping a little longer in the weekend, they woke up early to watch their own Ravikant Singh play against Australia in the Under-19 World Cup final.

People started trickling in to the house of primary teacher Samrendra Singh in the village, around 110km northwest of Patna, from 5am. There were around 50 visitors on his veranda as the match started in faraway Townsville. The guest count at the house of Samrendra — an uncle of Ravikant — swelled with time and it crossed the 200-mark within an hour.

The villagers were excited, as they were eager to see the performance of medium pacer Ravikant, having his roots in this village. The host was more than happy to serve them tea as his nephew, fondly called Bittu by him, took the field.

Happy over the great beginning made by the India bowlers, the gathering erupted into a thunderous applause when Bittu sent Australian batsman M. Buchanan to the hut in the 12th over.

The Senduar boy, now settled in Konnagar on the outskirts of Calcutta with his family, could not strike again. But the villagers enjoyed the match on the TV till India romped home.

As promised by Samrendra and his family members, the show did not end with the match. Sweets followed. “We had promised to treat all the visitors to sweets if India won the match,” Samrendra said.

The celebration continued in the evening, as villagers danced to the beats of a band party.

Recalling the childhood days of Ravikant, Samrendra said: “Bittu was naughty but we all loved him.”

Samrendra said his cousin Prem Nath Singh, the father of Ravikant, always used to talk about the boy doing well in cricket. Prem had last visited the village in April with his wife Nirmala. But Bittu’s last visit was five years ago. Ravikant’s elder brother Rishikant, who also stays with his family in Konnagar, told The Telegraph over phone: “My grandfather Laxman Singh migrated to Bengal in 1956.”

Nirmala said: “My husband and two elder sons came to Calcutta in 1994. Ravikant, the youngest among my three sons, and I joined them in 2000. Till then, Ravi was with me at Senduar and he used to go to the village school.”