Followers of England's cricket team - especially the one-day team - will have seen enough false dawns to keep reaction to Tuesday's astonishing victory over South Africa muted.

But if Kevin Pietersen's perfect start as captain is another false dawn it's an undeniably bright one - and without the need for the lovely new floodlights at Trent Bridge to be switched on at all.

After a face-saving dead-rubber victory in the final Test, an assured performance and a spectacular one have seen England roar into a 2-0 lead in the five-match NatWest Series.

The returns of Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison mean England suddenly - and from a starting point a few months ago so impossibly dreadful it now seems barely believable - have a formidable-looking one-day outfit.

Few other teams can boast an attack featuring four bowlers operating on the nippy side of 85mph combined with a batting line-up deep enough for Stuart Broad to come in at number nine.

And with the lumbering, leaden-footed Matt Prior of 12 months ago suddenly replaced by a twinkle-toed Nureyev, the only real concern in Pietersen's new-look England side going forward is the lack of a top-class spinner.

And the lack of a spinner is far less significant in one-day cricket than it would be in Tests.

Prior's improvement in particular is astonishing, and he rightly shared the plaudits with Broad after England inflicted humiliation on their visitors in Nottingham.

It might only be a couple of one-day matches, but the evidence of wholesale technical improvement is hard to ignore.

While the acrobatic one-handed catch to remove Graeme Smith was the obvious crowd-pleaser, the one to dismiss Herschelle Gibbs perhaps better showed the steps - literally - he's taken.

It was a regulation catch. But Prior made it so with a neat sidestep to his left after Gibbs' ambitious drive came off the inside edge.

Last year, Prior would have had to dive or tumble to take that catch. No question. Now, he made it routine.

His precise, nimble footwork in Nottingham could not have been in more marked contrast to his flat-footed efforts of a year ago. Or Tim Ambrose's this season.

A keeper's footwork is at least as important as his glovework. If he carries on like this, Prior might even win me over.

I like Prior at the top of the order too, and if Ian Bell is going to play one-day cricket then that's where he must also bat.

His goal should be to bat long, and he remains a more instinctive and natural strokemaker than his two obvious rivals to open the batting in Strauss and Cook.

Pietersen and Owais Shah might be better off switching at three and four, but five is definitely Flintoff's best position. With Paul Collingwood as the finisher at six with three useful all-rounders to come, it all looks rosy for England.

Which means South Africa will win by 200 runs at The Oval.

And while England's performances in the first two one-dayers were as welcome as they were unexpected, it must be acknowledged that shoddy scheduling means the playing field is not as level as it might be.

Like India last year, South Africa arrived in England with one primary goal: win the Test series.

That achieved, there has been an inevitable easing off, first in the final Test and subsequently - and alarmingly - in the 50-over games.

While achieving the main goal doesn't excuse South Africa for being bowled out in 138 deliveries on a blameless pitch, scheduling the one-dayers after the main event will always place the touring side at a disadvantage - especially if they happen to win the Test series.