Matt Henry has had an eventful last few days and things might get even better come Sunday. He will have at least one extra fan rooting for him when New Zealand play the T20 World Cup final: his newborn son.

“Pretty special to be able to get home for that. Obviously Holly’s doing really well and Jack’s really good as well and Annabelle’s enjoying being a big sister so it’s all good. So yeah, no, it was pretty special to be home for that.”

It took a lot of effort, though. A flight out from Colombo to Christchurch. A flight in from Christchurch to Kolkata. All in less than a week and not just any ordinary week. A week when the world had descended into chaos with the crisis in West Asia.

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“There was a lot of sleep happening on the way back, to be honest,” Henry said. “So for me just focusing on obviously my family to get home – that was important for me and then if it worked out that I could get home in time then obviously it’d be great. Sorry, I was always going home but get back for the semi-final, so it’s great to be here.”

Henry arrived late on the night before the game against South Africa and had very little time to prep but he leaned on his experience. “Well we’ve had lots of cricket, so I think at this point there’s trust,” he said. “Obviously if there’s rain you can’t train either, so just going for that approach where making sure they’re mentally fresh, mentally ready and just being confident in your skills that you possess. So for me it was getting here and doing a job for the team and thankfully we did that.”

New Zealand needed Henry at his best towards the end of their bowling innings. Their spinners, particularly Rachin Ravindra and Cole McConchie, had tied South Africa down to 113 for 5 in 16 overs. Henry himself gave 15 runs in the 17th over. James Neesham went for 22 in the 18th. And Lockie Ferguson was hit for 13 in the 19th. Henry had one left. He spent all of it chatting with Mitchell Santner, figuring out when to go yorker, when to go slower ball, when to go bouncer and it all worked. The 20th over yielded two wickets in two balls and only six runs. The set batter Marco Jansen (52 off 28 at the time) could only face two out of the last six balls.

Matt Henry picked up two wickets in the final over ICC/Getty Images

“I think the way to restrict that side to that total of 169 was a brilliant job,” Henry said. “I think we’d be taking that any day here at Kolkata and Eden Gardens, obviously it’s tough when you’ve got a small side [boundaries] like that as well to protect. It can be really dangerous with the power-hitters they [South Africa] do possess. So I think the way we did a great job controlling that. Also wresting some momentum into our batting innings, which is obviously really good as well.”

There are already celebrations around New Zealand even though the semi-final was taking place in the middle of the night for them. “I think everyone will be pretty excited,” Henry said. “But I think there’ll be a few tired people as well. I think most people would have woken up to have a wee look on that and then I think they would have watched.”

Henry missed the Champions Trophy final with injury. He was never going to miss this game even though he barely got back in time for it.

“No, yeah, it’s pretty special to be able to obviously reach another final,” he said. “The guys are really excited but for now is to enjoy this. I think the guys have been playing some really good cricket and some special innings from Finn [Allen]. Just unbelievable. So to enjoy that and then we can move on and get ready for what’s to come.”