Taylor, who turned 27th today, cracked a breath-taking 131 runs off 124 balls to take New Zealand to a challenging 302 for seven after surviving two chances early in his innings at Pallekele stadium here.
Taylor hit eight fours and seven massive sixes in his innings and in the company of Jacob Oram piled up a mammoth 114 runs in the final six overs after skipper Daniel Vettori won the toss and elected to bat.
Fast bowlers Tim Southee and Kyle Mills then ran through the Pakistan batting lineup, reducing the Asian Gaints to 45 for five in 14.4 overs, before dismissing them for 192 with 8.2 overs to spare to reach top of the Group A table.
New Zealand will next play Canada and Sri Lanka in the last two league matches in Group A here.
Chasing 303 to win, Pakistan had a disastrous start when Southee trapped Mohammad Hafeez (5) in front of wicket in the second over. Mills then repeated the treatment to Ahmed Shehzad (10) as Pakistan slipped to 23-2 in 6.1 overs.
Mills soon sent Younis Khan's (0) offstump for a walk, while Southee induced an edge off Kamran Akmal (8) to further break their back. After few overs, Misbah-ul-Haq (7) became a victim of Southee as Pakistan were looking down the barrel at 45-5 in the 15th over.
Skipper Shahid Afridi (17) then wielded his willow for a couple of fours and a six before falling prey to Jacob Oram in the 18th over.
Umar Akmal then hit a 58-ball 38 with the help of three fours and added 36 runs with Abdul Razzaq before holing out to Oram at deep midwicket off Nathan McCullum.
Razzaq fought hard for his 74-ball 62 and became only the fourth all-rounder in world cricket to score 5000 runs, beside taking 250 runs in one-day Internationals.
He and Umar Gul (34 not out) provided some late entertainment, adding 66 runs off 51 balls for the ninth wicket but it was too little too late in the end.
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