MS Dhoni visits Deori temple in Tamar, near Ranchi, on Sunday and (above) wife Sakshi joins him at Birsa Munda Airport for their flight to Mumbai. Pictures by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, June 5: After the historic victory, the customary visit.

M.S. Dhoni finally turned up at Deori Mandir in Tamar this morning to offer special prayers to the goddess — who has always fulfilled all his wishes — after India’s World Cup win.

Captain Cool had visited the temple, situated 60km from the state capital along NH-33, before the World Cup to seek blessings for his team’s success. After the victory, another trip, this time to thank the Mata, was imminent. Only, the long schedule of IPL-4, which again his team Chennai Super Kings won, could possibly have kept him away this long.

Accompanied by deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahto and brother-in-law Gautam Gupta, Dhoni reached the mandir at 10.30am. The priests, who had offered special prayers a day before Mahi led the Indian team in the final against Sri Lanka on April 2 and were desperately waiting for his visit, hugged the Ranchi lad and congratulated him.

“The captain thanked Mata Deori for her blessings, which made him lift the World Cup. He also prayed for Team India’s good performance,” said Manoj Panda, a priest at the temple.

Dhoni reportedly informed the priests about his visit just before leaving his Ranchi home this morning. Hence, not too many fans were expected at the temple. But if MSD had wanted to avoid the crowd, that was not to be. To his surprise, he got a rousing welcome from more than 2,000 people, who had lined up to offer prayers and got lucky.

“For one week now, thousands of devotees have been coming to Deori Mandir. Today too, more than 2,000 devotees were waiting in queue to go inside the temple when the Team India skipper walked in. The queue went haywire as people pushed, shoved and craned their necks to catch a glimpse of Dhoni and touch him,” said Jitendra Munda, a resident of Tamar.

Since his early days on the crease and after his Ranji debut in 1998-99, Dhoni has been a regular visitor to Deori temple with friends or family members in tow. He never fails to seek the blessings of the deity before every big match. Even after his marriage last year, he took wife Sakshi to pay respects to the goddess.

Today, Dhoni spent about half an hour at the temple. He also planted five mango saplings on the premises to mark World Environment Day, a day after being roped in as the brand ambassador of the forest and environment department.

Later, he left for Mumbai.