White Ferns coach Ben Sawyer emphasised the positives despite acknowledging his side should have "easily" chased down Pakistan’s tally of 137 for six in Dunedin yesterday.
They fell 10 runs short instead.
They lost four wickets in the powerplay and, despite some heroics at the end, were not able to save the T20 series.
Pakistan will go into the final game in Queenstown on Saturday with an unassailable 2-0 lead.
Sawyer felt his side prepared well but the execution did not match the effort.
"It is just the little things that we’ve got to tidy up," he said.
"I think the first two runs were from misfields, so there are just little areas that we are missing at the moment.
"I guess that is the disappointing part.
"But seeing Georgia [Plimmer] come out and score more runs again is really good.
"Hannah Rowe had a really good game and Molly Penfold — I think that is her best performance with the ball."
Plimmer whacked a quickfire 28, Rowe clouted 33 and Penfold took two for 17.
Those were high points in what was another underwhelming performance by the home team.
Sawyer felt his side should have been able to overhaul Pakistan’s total.
"We should have done that quite easily, to be honest. We said at the break that we thought we held them to a decent score that we should chase.
"We thought that was well within our reach.
"Obviously, to be four down in the powerplay is tough. But I guess the positive to come out of it was to get within 10 after a poor start was good from us at the back end.
"We just needed more from our top order."
