AUCKLAND: New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has not really slept since his side’s semi-final win over South Africa on Tuesday while skipper Brendon McCullum wants to ‘stop and smell the roses’ before the co-hosts turn their attention to the cricket World Cup final.

New Zealand sealed their place in Sunday’s final in Melbourne when Grant Elliott hit a six off Dale Steyn to clinch a four-wicket victory over the South Africans.

The win ended a run of six defeats in the last four for New Zealand and put them in their first World Cup final.

“I think today it is still about letting it sink in,” McCullum told reporters at the team hotel. “When you achieve something as special as we have done you don’t want to park it too quickly.

“You have got to allow yourself the opportunity to stop and smell the roses. Today is about enjoying that. Tomorrow we will turn our attention to the final.”

Hesson said he had not really slept after the side returned to the hotel from Eden Park, where they shared a few drinks with the South Africans before doing the same with family and friends.

“We got back to the hotel pretty late and I was pretty wired,” said Hesson. “There were obviously a lot of emotions throughout.

“I never thought we would get over the line until we saw the ball disappearing. I don’t even know where it landed. I just jumped up.

“It was a whole heap of emotion, a whole heap of pride in the group. You have got a group of guys that did everything for each other. To put in a performance like that last night, with a crowd like that, it was very special.”

Hesson said they would not treat the final any differently from the 10 successive games they have now won, eight of which have come at the World Cup.