England Cricket / Editor / 13 April 2007 /

Top-order batsman Andrew Strauss is tipping England's form to improve as their encounters at the World Cup become more important.

The 30-year-old Middlesex left-hander was left on the sidelines for England's opening five games at the tournament, but returned in place of county team-mate Ed Joyce to face Australia and remained in the side for the unconvincing victory against Bangladesh on Wednesday.

Despite failing to set the World Cup alight so far, England can reach the semi-finals should they defeat South Africa and West Indies in their final Super 8 games.

Strauss insists that, with the pressure starting to increase on the players, they will start producing the performances which saw them beat New Zealand and then Australia three times in a row to lift the Commonwealth Bank Series earlier this year.

He said: "When we take the field against South Africa we'll be four wins from winning the World Cup, that's what we've got to look to.

"We can almost play with more freedom because we're in that situation. We've had some good individual performances but as a batting unit we haven't fired and in those last four games of the Commonwealth Bank series we did."

Ahead of Tuesday's South Africa showdown, the 30-year-old added: "We know what we've got to do. We know our strategy works if we execute it properly and it's just a question of going out and doing it now. It's the business end of the World Cup and this is what we play for."

Betfair punters don't share Strauss' confidence though, with the Proteas favourites to take the points. Graeme Smith's men are trading at 1.49 while England can be backed at 2.86.

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