Andrew Strauss is banking on England feeding off the pressure of their situation to find their best form and become genuine World Cup challengers.

The Middlesex left-hander accepts England have yet to really get out of the starting blocks and have only uninspiring victories over Canada, Kenya, Ireland and Bangladesh to show for their efforts.

But now they approach crunch-time in the tournament and they know successive victories over South Africa and West Indies next week will seal their qualification to the semi-finals and leave them just two wins away from a shock World Cup triumph.

On form it seems an unlikely prospect, particularly after their laboured four-wicket win over Bangla-desh at the Kensington Oval, but Strauss is confident the simple equation can inspire them to far greater levels of performance.

He believes the situation is similar to the one they found themselves in recently Down Under, when they had to reel off successive wins against New Zealand and Australia to reach the final of the Commonwealth Bank series, then beat the hosts twice more to finish as shock winners.

''A lot of people felt exactly the same in Australia when we had four games to win it and no-one thought we could do it, but if we can string together four wins against New Zealand and Australia, there's absolutely no reason why we can't do it against the sides coming up,'' said 30-year-old Strauss.

''We've got to play very well, but we can do that. We can take confidence from what we did in Australia and it's an exciting time for us now.

''We edged our way to this position, we haven't played our best cricket but now is the time to let the hand-brake off and go out and express ourselves.''

So far England have played steady, reliable cricket which has looked laboured in comparison to the exciting brand practised by the leading sides.

While they all field with an energetic intensity, England look pedestrian and while the leaders attack with the bat from the very start, England attempt to build a solid platform and launch their assault later in the innings.

They have been undermined by a top order which has failed to function, and ther has been only one century from Kevin Pietersen and eight other half-centuries in seven matches.

But Strauss, recalled to the side two matches ago in place of Middlesex team-mate Ed Joyce, remains convinced they will explode into life now the World Cup is at its crunch stage.

He said: ''There's no hiding from the fact we haven't fired as a unit. There have been some very good individual performances and some very good partnerships, which are crucial to winning one-day games, but whenever we've done that we've allowed ourselves to get into a tough position again.

''We're disappointed about it and we're trying to fix it. Sometimes you can almost try too hard.

''The guys that have really played well are the ones who have gone out with a carefree attitude and taken the game to the opposition.

''Every game is a must-win game now and there's no point in leaving anything in the locker.

''We've shown before that we can win four or five games on the trot and if we do that again we'll be world champions.''

England are taking two days off before they begin preparations for Tuesday's showdown with South Africa, while Bangladesh begin planning for their next two games hoping other results go in their favour.

Cricket's newest Test nation, Bangladesh have rocked the World Cup with victories over India and South Africa, but captain Habibul Bashar accepts their chances of qualification are now slim following their defeat to England.

Their remaining matches are against Ireland on Sunday and the West Indies next Thursday and Bashar admitted: ''I think our chances are very slim, but at least we should be in number six or seven position. If we had beaten England there would have been some more hope for us."