Strauss targets England consistency

England's captain, Andrew Strauss, believes that Friday's third ODI at Cape Town could prove to be one of the team's most instructive of recent times, as they seek to build on the momentum generated by their impressive seven-wicket victory at Centurion last week, and end their frustrating habit of inconsistency.

England's returns in one-day cricket in the past 14 months have fluctuated like the stock market - a 4-0 victory at home to South Africa, a 5-0 defeat away to India, back-to-back series wins against West Indies, and a 6-1 hiding at home to Australia. In the recent Champions Trophy, England continued that trend with impressive wins against Sri Lanka and South Africa, only to collapse to a crushing defeat in the semi-final against Australia.

"There is a long-term plan in improving our one-day cricket - and these sorts of games are the ones that can really take us forward," Strauss told reporters at Newlands on the eve of the match. "We've said in the past we've always responded well to defeat, but we have not been quite so great on building on a good performance. We're going to try to put ourselves under a bit of pressure this game to make sure we build on that."

England have never yet managed more than a single victory in any one of their three previous one-day tours of South Africa - and they were routed 4-1 on their last visit in 2004-05 - but victory at Newlands on Friday would ensure at least a share of the spoils this time around. Strauss, however, is not banking on South Africa making life easy for them - especially at a venue where they have won 24 of their 27 contests since 1992.

"We've got ourselves in a nice position to really turn the screw in this one-day series, so now is not the time to let up," said Strauss. "They are going to come back hard at us, there's no doubt about that - they're always competitive anyway but they wouldn't have enjoyed losing that first game. We're expecting them to come here all guns blazing."

England's bid for victory will be aided by the expected return of Stuart Broad, who has recovered from a shoulder injury and is likely to come into the side in place of Sajid Mahmood. South Africa have been quick to focus on Broad's perceived lack of match fitness, having not played since the opening game of the tour, but Strauss was sure he would rise above such mindgames.

"I suppose it's a little bit of a test of his character," said Strauss. "Those sorts of comments have a good way of focusing your mind and motivating you - and he certainly looked in fine fettle yesterday when we had a middle practice. He's confident and he's been bowling pretty well for a long period of time."

Graeme Swann is another player who could feature on Friday, if England feel that his side strain has healed sufficiently, while Kevin Pietersen - who recently returned to action after recuperating from Achilles surgery in July - will be keen to improve on his current tour tally of 37 runs in three innings.

"He's been out for a while, so it's always going to take a couple of games for him to be at 100%," said Strauss. "But I never have any real worries about KP, a big score is always just around the corner. He's fresh, motivated and really wants to contribute to the England side - and coming back to South Africa is another place he really wants to do well."