Craig McMillan praised his team-mates after a man-of-the-match performance guided the BLACKCAPS into the ICC World Cup semi-finals.
McMillan took three wickets and struck an unbeaten 38 as the New Zealanders completed a five-wicket victory over South Africa in Grenada.
Stephen Fleming and Scott Styris provided half-centuries and a 78-run stand, but McMillan was the match's most valuable player.
The all-rounder expressed satisfaction with a return to winning form after lapsing against Sri Lanka 48 hours earlier.
He said: “I suppose after what happened a couple of days ago the guys have bounced back very well today and it’s good to be in the semis.”
McMillan reflected on his success with both bat and ball.
“Taking three-for was great,” he said. “I haven’t taken that many wickets for a while. Flem (Stephen Fleming) generally gives me the ball with very short notice if we’re in a bit of trouble.
“It’s a tricky number, 190. It’s one that you know you should chase down. We really talked about conserving wickets and having wickets in hand at the end, creating key partnerships.
“Stephen and Scotty did that at the top and the guys did a really good job.”
Captain Stephen Fleming felt the win was crucial ahead of their final Super Eight Series game against Australia.
“There was so much on the line today and getting across the line against South Africa has always been tough for us so we wanted to make sure we did it the hard way and grind it out,” he said.
“It’s nice to know we are through to the semis because Australia are the toughest you can get.
“We’ve had some good battles with them of late and they’ll be determined to reverse a couple of results that happened in New Zealand and they are playing good cricket at the moment. It should be a great game coming up.”
Losing captain Graeme Smith added: “Conditions had an influence but all credit to New Zealand and the way they managed to use those conditions to their advantage. I think that’s the key.
“So we’ll bounce back. We have a lot of experience and we’ve got a lot of big players looking forward to the England game.”
for World Cup statistics and schedule
