Matt Henry had an exciting and busy week as the New Zealand national cricket team beat South Africa by nine wickets to reach the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final.
On February 27, after the match between the New Zealand team and the England national cricket team, Henry returned home to witness the birth of his son. He returned to India soon after and joined the team in Kolkata hours before Wednesday’s semi-final.
Despite the long journey and little rest time, Henry played an important role in the game. He took 2 wickets for 34 runs, including two in the final over, helping restrict South Africa to 169/8. New Zealand then chased down the target with ease.
Henry said it was very special for him to be able to celebrate the birth of his child at home.
“It’s so special to be able to come home (to have the baby),” Henry said of the remarkable week during a media interaction after the win.
“Obviously Holly is doing great, Jack is doing great and Annabelle is enjoying being a big sister, so it’s all good. So, yeah, no, it’s special to be home.”
The fast bowler said he was relying on experience rather than practice ahead of the semi-finals as preparation time was minimal. He focuses on staying mentally fresh and believing in his skills.
“We’ve played a lot of cricket so I think it’s about trust now. Obviously if it rains you can’t train, so just take that approach and make sure they’re fresh and mentally prepared and confident in the skills they have. So for me, it’s about coming out here and doing a job for the team and thankfully we did that.”
In the semi-final, South Africa looked set to score over 170 after a strong innings from Marco Jansen. But Henry returned for the final over after discussing plans with captain Mitchell Santner and bowled brilliantly, taking two wickets and conceding just six runs.
“Yes, obviously a strong attack is very important, especially here, restricting runs and taking wickets is what you want to achieve and restricting the team to a total of 169 was a brilliant job,” he said.
“I think we would have taken that approach any day in Kolkata and Eden Gardens and obviously it’s difficult when you have such a small team to protect.
“That’s really dangerous for power hitters, so I thought we did a good job of controlling that. And also getting some momentum into our at-bats, which was obviously really good as well.”
New Zealand will now play the final in Ahmedabad. They will face the winner of the second semi-final between India and England.
