A calculated gamble 

The Bangladesh team placed a calculative bet in the first of the three Twenty20s when they dropped vice-caption Mehedi Hasan Miraz for Mahedi Hasan, a gamble that paid great dividends in the end.

Mahedi, playing his first T20I for the Tigers in almost 14 months, claimed two wickets for just 14 runs with his off-spin and also played an unbeaten 16-ball 19 as part of a 40-run partnership with Liton Das to take Bangladesh home.

The 29-year-old's selection in the eleven over Miraz was surprising given that his T20 record in New Zealand was not that great before yesterday's match.

Mahedi averaged 29 runs per wicket at an economy rate of 11.6 in his three previous outings in the country.

In comparison, Miraz averages 24 with the ball and has an economy rate of 6.00 in the two T20Is he has played in the country.

Still, the team management decided to drop Miraz for Mahedi against New Zealand, which was a testament to the strides the latter has made in recent times in his bowling in white-ball cricket.

Mahedi made his limited chances count in the recent ODI World Cup, claiming six wickets in three games at an average of 24.33, the best among all Bangladeshi bowlers.

Given his performances, it was a little surprising when Mahedi was named for just the T20 series against the Kiwis and left out of the ODI squad.

The team included him the first chance they got, and the all-rounder paid back that show of faith in spades.

It was also surprising to see skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto entrusting Mahedi to open the innings with the ball even though he had three pacers in his arsenal.

The pace duo of Shoriful Islam and Tanzim Hasan Sakib were lethal with the new ball in the third ODI at the same venue, a match where Bangladesh rattled the hosts for just 98, a fact that just added to the surprise.

But Shanto's decision was not based on a whim. 

Tim Seifert, one of the Kiwi openers, has been recently struggling against spinners and his last two dismissals in the format also came at the hands of the slower bowlers.

Bangladesh wanted to exploit this weakness by giving Mahedi the ball up front and he delivered by rattling Seifert's stumps with a flighted delivery in the first over, dismissing him for a duck.

Even though Mahedi struck in his first over and New Zealand were three down inside two overs, courtesy of a double strike from Shoriful in the second over, the spinner was taken off the attack and Sakib was brought in. 

But when Daryl Mitchell hit Shoriful for a couple of commanding boundaries in the fourth over, Shanto took a brave call and brought Mahedi back into the attack against Mitchell, a batter known for his attacking approach against spinners, which was evident in the ODI World Cup in India where he plundered 552 runs. 

But Mahedi wasn't fazed by Mitchell's reputation and dished up a flighted delivery which evaded his bat and crashed into the off-stump.

Mahedi's bowling, along with Shoriful's, set the tone of the match and his partnership with Liton laid the finishing touches, with the all-rounder hitting the final boundary to seal a historic victory for the Tigers, their first ever against the hosts in T20s.

And that's why, despite neither being the most successful bowler nor the best batter in the match, the all-rounder was named the player-of-the-match, and deservingly so.