played magnificently and then the Leicestershire partnership finished it off." After the match, a CricInfo article read, "the match pivoted round Paul Nixon. By smashing three bottom-handed fours through midwicket in the 48th over he made a seemingly impossible chase do-able." On the prospect of playing in future competitions for England, Nixon remarked, "I still feel I could do a job at the next World Cup in 2011." Statistics and records England finished fifth in the competition overall, although Nixon had proved one of the team's success stories. He remarked, "fifth at the World Cup is nowhere – but I have loved every minute and let's see what the future holds." Nixon finished the tournament with an average of 38.6, having scored 193 runs. This was the third highest in the England team, behind Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood. He was the only English batsman to score over 100 runs without hitting over 50 in a single innings. After facing 194 balls, he had a strike rate of 99.48, hitting seventeen 4s and five 6s. This was the 10th highest strike rate of any player at the World Cup. Of those batsmen that batted more than 3 times in the competition, he ended up with the 6th highest strike rate. He also recorded the fifth highest strike rate of any England player in any innings in the competition, with his 42* off 41 balls against New Zealand – a strike rate of 102.43. Nixon made two more knocks with strike rates over 95, against West Indies and Sri Lanka. Nixon was involved in four of the highest scoring England partnerships: 6th wicket partnership of 51 with Paul Collingwood against Ireland 7th wicket partnership of 87 with Ravi Bopara against Sri Lanka 8th wicket partnership of 71 with Liam Plunkett against New Zealand 9th wicket partnership of 27 with Stuart Broad against West Indies Nixon had the 34th highest average of all of the players to have taken part – notably one place above Brian Lara. He was the second highest placed wicket keeper – in terms of average – behind Adam Gilchrist who moved ahead of the England man after 149 in the final. He finished with 9 dismissals – 7 catches and 2 stumpings, which placed him joint fifth in the wicket keeper dismissal rankings. Retirement from cricket He announced that he would play his final game of professional