Baz Proud to be here

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum savoured the experience of a lifetime as his team celebrated an epic cricket World Cup semifinal victory over South Africa at Eden Park on Tuesday.

Grant Elliott gave the co-hosts a four-wicket victory when he struck Dale Steyn over long-on off the penultimate ball of the rain-reduced match.

New Zealand will now meet the winners of Thursday's semifinal in Sydney between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.

"Pretty amazing," McCullum said at the presentation ceremony. "It was a great advertisement for cricket, everybody will remember this for the rest of their lives.

"It's the greatest time of our lives. We have enjoyed the experience, the crowds that have turned up, the brand of cricket we have tried to play. "Hope they're all dreaming as much as we are, we've got a huge occasion in a few days' time, and jeez it would be nice to win it.

"We don't mind who we face in the final, they are both quality sides but we know if we play the way we want to we are a good chance. I'm really proud to represent New Zealand."

Chasing a revised target of 298 in 43 overs, New Zealand won with only one ball to spare. McCullum revealed he had welcomed the rain interruption that stopped play for close to two hours during South Africa's innings. When the players went off the field, South Africa were 216 for 3 after 38 overs, with Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers already past their century partnership.

"Keep raining," McCullum, nicknamed Baz, said, when asked what was running through his mind when the drops began falling. "They were obviously setting it up quite nicely, they were two set batsmen, two very destructive batsmen at the crease as well.

"I still looked at the innings and I thought that the way we kept giving in the field, the way that we bowled, I still thought we were controlling everything we possibly could. Sometimes you come up against people who play significant hands and that's what those guys were doing and we just knew we had to hang in there, I guess. Even with the bat, as long as we could hang in there we gave ourselves a chance towards the end."

McCullum laid the platform for the chase with a 26-ball 59, and Grant Elliott finished the match with an unbeaten 73-ball 84.

McCullum played down his own role in the win.

"It's all bits and pieces, really, when it boils down to the significance of the innings Grant played. We had to generate some sort of run rate early when you're chasing such a big score and that's obviously what we tried to do."