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It looks like New Zealand's star pacer, Matt Henry, might miss the T20 World Cup semi-final against South Africa, as hinted by captain Mitchell Santner. During the pre-match press conference leading up to their crucial knockout game against the unbeaten South Africans, Santner shared that Henry had flown back to New Zealand for the birth of his child and is expected to return to India on Tuesday, March 3. 

Henry has been in phenomenal form throughout the tournament. He played a key role in New Zealand's impressive victory over Sri Lanka in the Super 8s, where he took two wickets for just three runs. Remarkably, he bowled only two overs, delivering 10 dot balls and tearing through the Lankan top order. 

Following that, he faced England, where he recorded figures of 1 for 19 in 2.3 overs. On Tuesday, Santner mentioned that whether Henry can play in the semi-final will depend on how he feels after that long flight back from New Zealand. 

"Matt is currently in the air, he’s landing tonight, so I guess we'll see how he pulls up - it's obviously quite far away, New Zealand from here. But he'll obviously have a little run around in the morning, see if he's ready to go. So yeah, hopefully he's good to go," Santner said.

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New Zealand has already faced South Africa once in this tournament. In that match held in Ahmedabad, Marco Jansen dominated the Kiwi top order. After Jansen's stellar bowling performance, Proteas captain Aiden Markram played a brilliant innings, scoring an unbeaten 86 runs to lead South Africa to a convincing win. 

The semi-final between South Africa and New Zealand is set to take place at Eden Gardens, kicking off at 7 pm IST on March 4. While New Zealand battles it out with South Africa, the hosts, India, will take on England at the Wankhede Stadium in Navi Mumbai on March 5.