The world champions are yet to beat New Zealand at Twenty20s. Three times India have scared New Zealand, and three times New Zealand have held their nerve to win.

Two of those matches have come at the start of a tour that -given some creative license - is being called their final frontier. That makes it nine losses in their last 11 matches in New Zealand, following from the 2-0 and 5-2 drubbing in Tests and ODIs in 2002-03. How long before history starts playing on the minds of this extremely