White Ferns allrounder Amelia Kerr believes her side were one good partnership away from victory in the first ODI against England.
Kerr's first game as New Zealand captain, as she stepped in for the injured Sophie Devine, ended in a four-wicket defeat at the Basin Reserve on Monday.
"That's probably the first ever, professional match I've ever captained in 50-over cricket. I haven't even captained in 50-over cricket for Wellington. So, it's definitely a new challenge."
A seventh wicket partnership of 130 runs from Amy Jones and Charlie Dean saw England chase 208 with 52 balls to spare.
"I'd rather be on the winning side but that's cricket and we turn up the next day. It's not the end of the world and we will keep enjoying our time together and there's a lot of good stuff to be happy with."
The White Ferns were earlier dismissed with eight balls remaining in their innings.
Kerr said her side did well to have a platform set, but couldn't cash in during the death overs.
"Suzie (Bates) was outstanding at the top of the order and showed her class another 50 to her name. Potentially there were times where we could have looked to be more aggressive but unfortunately, we lost wickets in clumps and that made it hard for the betters coming in to take risks."
She said they were probably in a position to get to 250.
"They bowled really well. Kate Cross was outstanding, and at the end of the day, maybe 230-240 would have been enough on that wicket. We took wickets up top and that's how we knew we were going have to win that game. Then Amy Jones and Charlie Dean had a great partnership and we couldn't find a way to break it."
Kerr said they just did not do enough with the bat.
"It just shows when someone bats through and bats deep that often wins teams games. Unfortunately we didn't have anyone today do that for us."
However, Kerr credited the character, fight and the energy from her players.
"To have them six down for not many. I thought it gave us a real sniff and we were probably one wicket away from winning that game and unfortunately, we couldn't find a breakthrough."
She said there would be some fine tuning required ahead of the second match on Thursday in Hamilton.
"It will be being able to bat for a longer periods of time and we speak about partnerships and we didn't get one big enough.
"I think we've got to be pretty happy with our effort with the ball especially up top, I think it's just partnerships with the with the bat is key and taking it deep and they showed what you can do when you get yourself in."
