The bowling had touches of mastery and frustration. Tim Southee often excelled at the death but struggled with super-over pressure. The six powerplay overs proved a problem, particularly in the last two matches against England and the West Indies.
With Kyle Mills (33), Jacob Oram (34) and possibly Daniel Vettori (33) unlikely to bowl at the next tournament, it's an area New Zealand needs to develop.
The fielding was largely competent although there were several dropped catches in pool play, notably the Ross Taylor captaincy distraction when he put down Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez in the first over at slip.
Hesson was circumspect in his assessment, especially regarding the super overs.
"It's hard to simulate those situations, we try to keep our trainings as competitive as possible because the more the guys are put in those situations the better they get.
"I thought we played pretty well throughout. We were two runs away from being top qualifier. There's a level of satisfaction but every team who leaves without the World Cup is disappointed."
Hesson disputed claims that there was a lack of match winners in the team, outside McCullum and Taylor.
Andrew Alderson flew to Sri Lanka courtesy of Emirates Airline (www.emirates.com/nz)
