Game two is in Wellington this afternoon and the home side will need to play a lot better than it managed during its seven-wicket loss at Sky Stadium.
The White Ferns lost the key wickets of Sophie Devine and Amy Satterthwaite inside the powerplay and were unable to properly recover.
Carter said veteran wicketkeeper-batswoman Katey Martin led a mini revival and spinner Leigh Kasperek bowled a tidy four-over spell.
He had hoped his side might be able to claw its way to a total of between 105 and 120. But the Ferns were all out for 96 and the tally did not prove much of a challenge.
"When you are defending a score like that you need to get the opposition four down for not many," Carter said.
"We had a little bit of a run-out chance ... which we could not take.
"So we missed a couple of little chances, but generally I thought England played very well," Carter said.
"They bowled well ... and I thought they fielded very well as well."
The White Ferns would have a thorough review of their performance but the team "have to look again for consistency because we’re not getting that", he said.
"It is a quick turnaround and all going well we will play a lot better."
