Kevin Pietersen is desperate for England to finally perform against a major nation in the World Cup when they take on South Africa in a must-win Super Eights clash.

Michael Vaughan and his men have lost their matches against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Australia in the Caribbean to date and know that only victory against South Africa will keep alive their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.

And South Africa-born batsman Pietersen is eager to end that miserable record against top opposition. He said: "We need to win a big game against a big nation and that's what we have to do on Tuesday.

"There's no point going through the World Cup beating the minnows and not winning a big game - Tuesday is a must-win game, otherwise it's going to be a pretty dismal World Cup for us."

Despite England failing to hit the same heights which saw them win their last four games in Australia en route to their one-day international tournament triumph, Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes Vaughan's men are close to finding their top Commonwealth Bank series form.

South Africa have lost their last two World Cup matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand and England will be hoping to make that three defeats in a row.

Ponting said: "I think there's a good chance that could happen. South Africa aren't playing their best cricket at the moment and England probably haven't played their best through this tournament yet either.

"But I can see it being a bit of a closer game than a lot of people may think. England, having just been there and done it before in the Commonwealth Bank Series when everyone wrote them off, probably know within themselves they have a chance of doing it again.

"It's a do-or-die game for them. If they win it and the next one, they'll probably sneak through into the semis - which would be a great result for them."

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