A 37-Year-Old Curse, A Never-Done-Before-Feat: Why India Have Weight Of History Against Them In CT 2025 Final vs New Zealand

India will face Zealand in the 2025 Champions Trophy final on Sunday (March 9) at the Dubai International Stadium in what is unarguably the battle of the two best sides in the tournament. After waiting 25 years to play each other in the competition, the summit clash will mark the second battle between the two nations in as many weeks.

India has the mental edge over New Zealand after beating them in the last league stage match of the tournament, which will also played in Dubai. Despite a top-order collapse, the Rohit Sharma-led side won the encounter by 44 runs with Shreyas Iyer scoring a half-century and Varun Chakravarthy taking a five-wicket haul.

Despite the victory last week, India has the weight of history against them on Sunday. This will only be the second time in history that the two teams will battle each other in the final of the Champions Trophy. In 2000, New Zealand under Stephan Fleming's captaincy defeated India in the summit clash in Nairobi despite a century from Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly. Chris Cairns scored a ton for the Black Caps.

The only other instance of India and New Zealand facing each other in the final of an ICC tournament was the 2021 World Test Championship (WTC) final in Southampton where rain meant the match went into a reserve day and the Kane Williamson-led side won the match denying Virat Kohli's men the chance to become the inaugural champions of the competition.

Infact, these are the only two ICC titles New Zealand have won in history. The Black Caps have lost every other global event final they have played in which includes the Super Over defeat to England in the 2019 World Cup final as well as losses to Australia in the summit clash of the 2009 Champions Trophy, 2015 World Cup, and 2021 T20 World Cup.

Hence, India has never beaten New Zealand in the final of an ICC tournament and will have to achieve a never-done-before feat.

India has only won one final against New Zealand in history, which was in the 1988 Sharjah Cup when the Ravi Shastri-led team defeated the Black Caps captained by John Wright by 52 runs. The two teams played each other in the final of a tri-series involving Zimbabwe in 2005 at Harare which was won by New Zealand.

Moreover, India have won just one knockout match in ICC tournament against New Zealand in history, which was the 2023 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. The only other ICC event knockout match between the two teams was the 2019 World Cup semi-final at Old Trafford, Manchester

Apart from the events organised by the world cricket governing body, India also defeated New Zealand in the 1985 World Championship of cricket semi-final at the Sydney Cricket Ground by seven wickets.

Overall, India and New Zealand have played each other in 119 ODIs and have won 61 games. In the Champions Trophy, they have played each other in two games with one victory each for both teams. In ICC ODI (Cricket World Cup + Champions Trphy) events, the two sides played 10 matches against each other, with five wins for each team. In ICC white-ball events (Cricket World Cup + Champions Trophy + T20 World Cup), New Zealand led the head-to-head with eight wins in 13 matches.

India lost the last two ICC ODI events finals they played with defeats to Pakistan in the 2017 Champions Trophy and Australia in the 2023 World Cup. Intrestingly, India lost both encounters after beating Pakistan and Australia in the league stage of the respective tournaments. This time around to, India face New Zealand in the final after beating them in the group stage.

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