Undefeated. How good is it that both our BLACKCAPS and White Ferns are undefeated in their respective tournaments!? The BLACKCAPS took care of Pakistan overnight, batting first to get 180/5 off their 20 overs before restricting Pakistan to just 158/5 off their 20 overs as the kiwi bowlers, especially our dual-spin combo of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi tightened the screws.

After two average batting displays that saw the kiwis score 126 and 142 batting first in their opening two games, the lads managed to put a bigger score on the board this time around with 180. This was understandable as the Mohali pitch looked to be the best batting track the BLACKCAPS have played on thus far and it was Martin Guptill who was the star with the bat as he smoked 80 off 48 balls, top-scoring for either team.

Guptill has improved with each game; 6 off 2, 39 off 27 and now this 80 off 48 balls. It's hard not to like that trend for Guppy and whenever he is in the mood the BLACKCAPS will be in with a chance of setting a big total or chasing any sort of total down. Pakistan have a handy bowling attack but Guptill wasn't having a bar of that as he hit 10 fours and 3 sixes while Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Irfan and Shahid Afridi all conceded at least 10 runs-an-over.

Understandably, Guptill gets the love but once again we saw a nice, lovely, wholesome batting performance from the team. Against India four batsmen scored 10+ runs, against Australia five batsmen scored 10+ runs and against Pakistan we also saw five batsmen score 10+ runs; Kane Williamson 17 off 21, Corey Anderson 21 off 14, Ross Taylor 36 off 23 and Luke Ronchi 11 off 7.

Having a group of batsmen contribute is important in T20 cricket and without those knocks the BLACKCAPS would have obviously not have reached a competitive total of 180. As I've said before, in T20 cricket those 21 off 14 and 36 off 23 sorts of innings are highly beneficial as they keep the game moving forward, keep the runs flowing and on a good pitch especially, it's a case of hit out or get out.

Anderson's innings was solid, although I loved the work of our two best batsmen in Williamson and Taylor. Williamson just noodles the ball around and only hit one boundary in 21 balls which is great as it means that he's getting the other batsman, the hitter, on strike. Taylor showed class in executing his role in this team as the closer, coming to the crease in the 15th over and maintaining the flow of runs from Guptill's bat. This job requires experience and the ability to play shots all round the park, Taylor can do that very well.

It's important to note that all of our batsmen have scored runs, enough runs to contribute to impressive wins...

Guptill: 6, 39, 80.

Williamson: 8, 24, 17.

Munro: 7, 23, 7.

Anderson: 34, 3, 21.

Taylor: 10, 11, 36.

Ronchi: 21, 6, 11.

Elliott: 9, 27, 1.

A lack of big scores is fine when the batting unit is working well with different batsmen contributing, this also makes it extremely difficult for opposition teams to target a batsman. 

Sure, Guptill might be a big wicket but Munro or Anderson might give it a whack instead. 

Sure, you can send all our hitters back to the sheds on a spinning pitch but Williamson, Taylor or Elliott can work the ball around #Wizardry.

The BLACKCAPS have shown what a dangerous proposition they are as they twice defended small totals expertly thanks to Williamson's captaincy, plus the work of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi. On a good pitch, the bowlers once again faced a stiff challenge even though they had more runs to work with and the way the bowlers responded after a great start from Pakistan showed us a tough edge to this bowling attack.

Adam Milne took the key wicket of Sharjeel Khan (47 off 25) in the 6th over and Pakistan were 1/65. From that point on it always felt as though the kiwi lads were in control, even with patches in which Ahmed Shehzad (30 off 32) or Shahid Afridi (19 off 9) as Santner and Sodhi once again showed just how game they are for a scrap.

Santner took 2/29 off 4 overs and bowled 12 dot-balls (only Mohammad Sami had more with 14) while Sodhi took 1/25 off 4 overs. Sodhi only conceded a single boundary - a big ol' six from Afridi before Sodhi then got his man. Santner got hit around a bit at the start and Sodhi got an early dose of Afridi's power but both bounced back strongly and stuck to their guns, stuck to their plans and of equal importance was Williamson sticking with them.

Milne finished with 2/26 off 4 overs and he's been low key impressive as he took 1/8 off 2.1 overs against India ... he wasn't so flash against Australia though. Milne had to be good, better than he was against Australia because Mitchell McClenaghan was taken to the cleaners, going for 43 runs off his 4 overs without wicket (10.75rpo). 

That's all good because it's the same with the bowlers as it is with the batting line up. McClenaghan was hot against Australia, however Pakistan targeted him this game and up stepped Milne to fill that void after being targeted by Australia. You can go after any of the kiwi bowlers but good luck trying to whack them all, even if Milne and McClenaghan both get smoked, Anderson or Elliott can bowl a few tidy overs and slow things down.

You could argue that this was the most impressive victory for the BLACKCAPS. Pakistan might not be Australia or India and may be highly inconsistent but they kiwis showed that they can A) make the most of a good pitch and B) still be effective on a pitch that doesn't offer as much assistance. How they go about their work against Bangladesh will be interesting, they could switch things up as they know they've made the semi's and not serve up the same team and same plans, confusing their opponent for the semi.  

They can of course just keep doing what they are doing because what's great about this BLACKCAPS team is that there's no single super star. Everyone in this team is chipping in, doing their job and when you've got 11 blokes performing as such, good luck trying to dominate. 

Let's not forget or sleep on the fact that the BLACKCAPS are the best fielding team at the World T20, easily.