White Ferns captain Amy Satterthwaite is accentuating the positive after her side's close ODI loss to Australia.
New Zealand came up just short in the opening game of the Rose Bowl - losing by five runs at the WACA in Perth.
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Chasing 242 for victory, Satterthwaite had the White Ferns on track before she fell in the penultimate over for 92 (123).
Despite the loss, the skipper was buoyed by her team's effort to bowl Australia out on a decent wicket.
"It's not often you get to do that," Satterthwaite said.
"I think there's still a lot of room for improvement, and that's the scary part.
"To take 10 wickets was outstanding. I think we probably had too many extras, and we leaked a few boundaries at the wrong time.
"But we showed a lot of fight and took it to them."
New Zealand now face the enormous task of winning the final two games of the series in Adelaide and Melbourne to wrest the Rose Bowl away from Australia for the first time since 2000.
But Satterthwaite is embracing the challenge – identifying two must-win games as a chance to make history for her players.
"It's just like two finals. Bring it on," she said.
Australia all-rounder Jess Jonassen will do her best to stop that happening.
Player-of-the-match in Perth, Jonassen spun her side back into the opener claiming the wickets of Satterthwaite and Katie Perkins on the way to figures of 4/43.
Jonassen admits New Zealand caused some stress amongst the camp as the game got close and she expects another big fight will be on their hands in Adelaide.
"We've dropped the first game of the last few series, so to have the first one under your belt is quite nice," Jonassen said.
"But we know NZ are going to come out just as hard, if not harder, in the next game. So we need to be on our game."
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