by Arunabha Sengupta
October 1987. Reliance Cup group match.
India tottering at 170 for 7 from 41.3 overs against New Zealand.
And then a spectacular phase, 82 runs ransacked in the last 51 deliveries. The diminutive Kiran More 42 off 26, actually outscoring a belligerent Kapil Dev during their partnership.
When in the space of three deliveries Kiran More skipped out of his crease twice and lofted Willie Watson’s medium pace over cover for four, veteran Hindi commentator Ravi Chaturvedi summed it up as: “Bade miyan to bade miyan, chhote miyan subhan allah!”
The essence is lost in translation, but can be approximated by, “Big brother [Kapil Dev] is big brother, but little brother Glory be!”
He was a fantastic wicketkeeper, very few have bettered his work with the big gloves for India. But Kiran More could also be a gutsy, gutsy batsman.
On debut he walked out with Dilip Vengsarkar approaching his landmark third century at Lord’s but running out of partners. Not many knew he could bat. But a crisp drive and a rasping hook later the commentator on air remarked with plain admiration, “Not only can Kiran More drive, he can also play the hook shot.”
That was not the last of his fighting partnerships.
Through his career he added 368 with Vengsarkar at 52.27, and 447 with Shastri runs at 49.67, and 303 with Tendulkar at 43.28.
At Bridgetown in 1988-89, on a horror tour, India were 63/6 after conceding a 56-run lead. Shastri and More added 133 against Marshall, Ambrose, Bishop, and Walsh to help India reach 251. Their stand amounted to more than half the side’s total.
And apart from being superb with his gloves—six stumpings in that Madras Test against West Indies, five in an innings—he was a thoroughly street-smart cricketer.
Who can forget his running out David Gower at Trent Bridge, Martin Crowe at Dunedin … or stumping Graham Gooch at Eden? All near impossible dismissals, at least two of them engineered moments before the ball went dead.
It is rather sad that he is often remembered only for the costly drop which allowed Gooch to score 333.
And of course, his chirping prevented shoulders from sagging towards the end of long hard days, and also got under the skin of Javed Miandad.
Not for nothing was he appointed vice-captain to Mohammad Azharuddin.
And later as selector, he was not averse to taking hard, unpopular, but very necessary decisions.
Kiran More was born on 4 Sep 1962.