Mahendra Singh Dhoni and wife Sakshi at a tea party at the governor’s house in Mumbai on Sunday to celebrate India’s World Cup victory. (AP)

She didn’t see the “big grin” but Sheila Singh knew he was wearing one when she told son-in-law Mahendra Singh Dhoni over the phone at 1.30am on Sunday: “We are the proudest in-laws.”

Daughter Sakshi was beside her husband in Mumbai, apparently screaming at the top of her voice: “Yaaayyyyyyy….we won.”

The man of the moment was, however, calm and understated — just as he was on the Wankhede pitch hours earlier, carrying on his shoulders the burden of 1.2 billion hopes. “He was listening to what she (Sheila) was saying…. He was very happy and one could make out that there was a big grin on his face,” a family friend said.

According to the friend, MSD’s parents-in-law Sheila and R.K. Singh did not take “too much” of their son-in-law and daughter’s time, leaving them to savour the World Cup triumph in the company of other Team India members and their families.

But while Mr & Mrs MSD spent the night partying in Mumbai, Sakshi’s parents couldn’t sleep either. “They were up almost the whole night, taking calls from well-wishers,” the friend said.

The Singhs, who had turned down several invitations to travel to Mumbai and watch the final in the stadium, stepped out of their Alipore home within an hour of Dhoni’s winning hit to visit a temple in the south of the city. The scenes of celebration on the streets left the couple stumped. And for once, the Singhs were happy to be stuck in a Calcutta traffic jam.

When they returned home after midnight, the calls wouldn’t stop coming. “They were simply overwhelmed by the joy that the victory had brought to everyone in India. That their son-in-law had led from the front was the icing on the cake,” the friend said.

On Sunday afternoon, R.K. Singh told Metro: “The team played well and we were ecstatic on seeing Mahi bat so well. Let’s live the moment now.”

Live the magic moment — that’s what the Singhs have been doing since Saturday night in their second-floor apartment at 10B Burdwan Road.

“They are stuck on yesterday. It’s not another day for them, looking at the moments on television over and again they are trying to let it all sink in,” the friend said.

Dhoni’s mother in-law Sheila, who had been praying through the India-Pakistan match in Mohali last Wednesday, was just as tense when India had slipped to 31 for the loss of two wickets in the final. “After the two wickets fell, she went to another room and came back after a semblance of stability returned around four overs later,” the family friend revealed.

Dhoni’s “body language” as he walked in to bat ahead of the in-form Yuvraj Singh made his mother-in-law believe that victory would be India’s. “Today, he is going to hit the winning shot,” she told her husband even as MSD took guard.

The family friend recalled how Sheila and her husband, a senior tea industry professional, didn’t move in their seats or even talk to one another from then on. “The silence in the room would be broken only by claps every time the batsmen found the ropes,” he said.

Tension returned to the room when Dhoni started getting what looked like cramps and the team physio ran to the ground. “They (the Singhs) were worried because they could not make out what was happening. They just prayed for him to be fit to resume batting,” the friend said.

As the match climaxed with a massive six off Dhoni’s blade, the Singhs’ neighbours converged on the apartment to clap, scream and jump in delight. In this explosion of joy, nobody heard whether an ecstatic Sheila uttered “I-told-you-so” to her husband. Her smile said it all.

She hasn’t stopped smiling since. “There is no limit to our happiness…. We cannot help smiling. The team’s hard work has paid off,” Sheila said.