Set a victory target of 291, the Windies rattled by the reverse-swing of pacer Shane Bond, squandered a great position and crumbled to 27-run loss at the Eden Park.

However, despite the negative remarks thrown at the team for their lack of consistency, King said its better to come close to a victory than to be totally out-played. "It's better than not having the opportunity to win," King told the press after game.

"This was a game that was there for us to take," he said, while adding that there were some positives to be taken from the game.

"Some of the positives to come out of this match were things like the opening partnership between Daren Ganga and Chris Gayle.

"It's something we've been striving for and it was something our middle-order didn't capitalise on, having done most of the hard work in the past. We picked a bad time for the middle-order not to perform as we know it can.

"People can talk about the standard all they like. But in reality we've got people out there busting their guts for their countries and really giving of their best."

New Zealand and the West Indians will now turn their attention to the second Test, which starts at Wellington on Friday and after losing Ramnaresh Sarwan, who has been ruled out of the rest of the series with a torn muscle in his left leg, King is hoping that the younger players will grab the opportunity to shine.

"Five of our players in the side are 23 and under," the Australia-born coach explained. "We know that they haven't got the experience now but we've got to keep giving them the opportunities to get that experience.

"I hate the fact that we've lost so many games, but sometimes you've got to get to the depths of despair before moving up," he added.