Hobart Hurricanes skipper Xavier Doherty could see the positives in his side's first KFC Big Bash League campaign, but said they were bitterly disappointed to not make next weekend's final.
The Hurricanes went down by seven runs to the Sydney Sixers in their semi-final at Blundstone Arena on Sunday night, limping to 7-146 in response to the visitors' 6-153 from their 20 overs.
Despite being pleased with making the finals, Doherty said the team did not subscribe to the theory of the honourable loss.
"It was a pretty good campaign to make the top four," Doherty said. "If you'd told us at the start of the tournament that we were going to be playing a semi-final we'd obviously be pretty happy with that."
"But you don't get much for finishing third or fourth or whatever it ended up being. It was a good effort but unfortunately not what we were after."
"Obviously you rate your success or failure on making the final or making the Champions League so unfortunately we didn't quite get there."
Nic Maddinson's 68 was instrumental in getting the Sixers past the 150-mark, but in pursuit of a gettable target, the Hurricanes' batting was again their Achilles' heel – with only Phil Jacques' 63 and a late 30 from Rana Naved-ul-Hasan offering any resistance.
"We gave it a pretty good shake, but unfortunately the thing that's held us up all tournament was our batting and it didn't quite fire today," Doherty said.
"I think it was probably a 160, 170 wicket but both teams bowled really well I thought. Credit to them, they bowled really well and they just built up too much pressure for us and we left ourselves too much to do."
Doherty said he had enjoyed the experience of captaining the Hurricanes in their inaugural campaign, with Tim Paine missing the competition due to a serious finger injury.
"It was great to have that opportunity to captain the Hurricanes in their first year and I think I've learnt a lot about myself and the game and captaining," the spinner said.
The 29-year-old also said he had been impressed with the reception the Big Bash League had received in Tasmania.
"I think it's been a huge success, particularly here in Hobart," he said.
"For people to spend their money and buy the ticket to support their local cricket team, it's been fantastic. The crowd's all the way through have really surprised everyone."
