India, Jan. 20 -- India have lost bigger games to bigger rivals. They have been outplayed by stronger teams. They have been ambushed by conditions, timing, and their own nerves. But when New Zealand do it, it lands differently, because it rarely looks like brute force. It looks like inevitability, the kind that creeps in quietly, and leaves India straight at a scoreboard that feels like it has been written by someone else.

New Zealand's most painful wins over India aren't all the same format or era, but they rhyme. They are pressure games where margins are thin, plans are clear, and the contest becomes less about spectacle and more about control. And in those moments, New Zealand have repeatedly been the team that keeps its shape while I...