The Kerala Ranji Trophy side was given a heroes’ welcome when they arrived on a charter flight in the state capital city on Monday night.

At Nagpur, Kerala finished in the runner-up spot after scripting history by becoming the first time the state played in the finals at Nagpur.

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On Tuesday, there will be a grand ceremony to honour the Kerala side which fought valiantly but went down after Vidarbha managed to keep the Kerala side’s first innings total to 342, after they got 379 in their first innings.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will be present to honour the side which created history.

For Kerala, the passage to their first ever final did not come easy as they won their quarterfinal against Jammu and Kashmir with just a one-run first innings lead, and in the semifinal, they bowled out Gujarat, two short of getting past Kerala’s first innings total.

The Kerala Cricket Association officials have come under all-round praise from all quarters for the way they did their job by giving the players the best facilities and even in defeat they decided to hire a charter flight to bring the team back.

Incidentally, only just two Keralaites who played the Ranji Trophy for Kerala have played test cricket for India, that includes pacers Tinu Yohanan and S. Sreesanth.