Kiwi Keeper Hails Effort

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McCullum - good all-round effort.

Brendon McCullum hit the winning runs against South Africa to secure New Zealand's progression to the World Cup semi-finals and then praised his side's all-round effort.

The Kiwis coasted into the last four with a five-wicket win after enjoying by far the better of conditions at Queen's Park.

The Kiwis - whose win also sent through Sri Lanka - needed to pass only 193 for seven and did so with 10 balls to spare, on the back of half-centuries from Stephen Fleming (50) and Scott Styris (56).

Fleming's most telling contribution, however, was his simple decision to bowl first in this Super Eight match which was played under heavy cloud cover in the first innings and none at all for most of the second.

"It's great that we picked ourselves up after the last game (against Sri Lanka)," McCullum told Sky Sports 2.

"With the overcast conditions today the toss was pretty crucial. We knew there was always going to be a window there and the way the guys bowled was fantastic, it gave us a chance to exploit it.

"We've bounced back after the last game. We kept pressure on them with the ball and chasing 190 on this sort of pitch was a pleasure to do."

South Africa captain Graeme Smith told Sky Sports 2: "The first 20 overs were tough to bat in and they exploited it superbly.

"They controlled a lot of our innings. Getting a decent total on the board was difficult and I thought we did well to drag it out.

"If we could have got 220 or 230 we would have had a real chance but under 200 was probably not enough.

"It comes down to England, a big crunch game which it was always going to be."

His opposite number Stephen Fleming admitted the conditions had been crucial.

"It helped a lot. We made mistakes in the last game but we got it right today," he said.

"We had to use the conditions well and getting two early wickets was crucial."

Before the semi-finals, Fleming's side face Australia.

"It's nice to be through to the semis. Australia are the toughest you can get and we've had some good battles of late, so there's a great game coming up."

Craig McMillan took three wickets for 23 and added an unbeaten 38 runs.

He said afterwards: "It was a good all-round team performance and the guys bounced back well today.

"I haven't taken that many wickets for a while. To pick up three was a bit unheard of!

"It was a tricky number, 190, it's one you know you should chase down. But we had plenty in hand and the guys did a really good job."