New Zealand coach Mark Greatbatch felt the team's game plan was right in its seven-wicket Super League loss to Australia which ended its ICC Under-19 World Cup hopes today.

It was the execution that let New Zealand down so badly, especially the batting.

Throughout the tournament New Zealand's batting has been insubstantial and even after getting into a sound position with more than 100 runs on the board in 17 overs, it couldn't cash in.

"[Rob] Nicol and [Jesse] Ryder gave us a good early platform but not being able to rotate the strike against their spinners cost us," Greatbatch said.

"There was no composure when [Aaron] Bird came back, there was no fronting up, no getting in line and playing straight.

"Hopefully the boys have learnt some lessons from today," he said.

Of the 100 overs in the game, New Zealand had been in control for 10-15 of them and that wasn't enough, especially after the quality of that period of control.

New Zealand's tactic of opening with two spinners was based on the notion of everyone having opened with a spinner at one time, so why not try two?

"We did have them two wickets down for 21 as a result of it," Greatbatch said.

But he was impressed with the way Shaun Marsh and Cameron White had gone about their 139-run partnership. They had started easily by taking the singles, they had been composed, they put the bad ball away, they ran hard and they put their hand up to win the game.

New Zealand had competed and that was satisfying for Greatbatch.

"At the end of the day you can only try every ball, whether you are winning or losing.

"White had been scoring at a run a ball speed throughout the tournament but today his 80 was off 107 balls so that was a positive," he said.

Nine of the players in the New Zealand team would be eligible for the Under-19 side next year.

© CricInfo