England skipper Paul Collingwood said his team's 32-run win over New Zealand in the first of two Twenty20 matches had been "massively important".
"We didn't perform too well in the ICC World Twenty20," he said after a result which improved England's record to four wins and eight losses in the format.
"We could have got a few more runs but did a lot of good things and the bowlers were fantastic," he said.
"It's a really good, positive start to the tour but we have to keep that up."
England comfortably defended a total of 184-8 on a good batting wicket, with the Black Caps losing their final wicket in the last over.
Dimitri Mascarenhas, who warmed up for the tour with a stint playing grade cricket in Perth, was man of the match.
He smashed four sixes on the trot off Jeetan Patel's off-breaks, and then sending down four accurate overs in which he took 2-19.
" I said to Colly that whoever was bowling I was going to go after him. He told me to back myself"
Mascarenhas said: "It's always good to hit a few sixes, it's good fun, but more importantly it's good to get out there and get some runs because I hadn't had a bat yet on this tour.
"It helped that there was such a short boundary and I said to Colly [Paul Collingwood] that whoever was bowling I was going to go after him. He told me to back myself and I did.
"[Patel] bowled a few in the slot and they went out of the park.
"I always try to get myself in and we'd pretty much blocked out a maiden the over before so we needed to get some runs."
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Disappointed stand-in captain Brendon McCullum, leading New Zealand in the absence of injured skipper Daniel Vettori, said: "It didn't go quite according to plan, but I think there's some positives we can take out of it as well.
"The way the young guys played on their debut was good and I'm sure they'll learn a lot from their outing today."
Kevin Pietersen, who hammered 43 off 23 balls, added: "The guys are up for it. We've trained as hard as England ever have. We just want to get better as a team and as individuals.
"As long as we keep performing as we have done and keep getting better then the sky's the limit for this young side."
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