Kevin Pietersen has challenged England to continue improving after rain foiled their bid to claim a NatWest Series whitewash over South Africa and secure second place in the world rankings.

Victory at Cardiff's SWALEC Stadium yesterday would have propelled England above their opponents to leave them as Australia's leading challengers for the coveted title as the world's best one-day side.

Instead, they had to settle for a 4-0 victory, after rain restricted play to just three overs, and third place in the world rankings - still a considerable improvement on the seventh place they started from at the beginning of the series.

But despite the massive improvements they have made as a one-day side in the last few weeks, captain Pietersen is urging England to continue striving for more as he attempts to build them into a team capable of finally challenging for major honours.

"All the guys are just hungry for success," said Pietersen. "There are a lot of players who know they have settled for a comfort zone in certain areas, but I don't live with any comfort zones.

"I don't settle for mediocrity; I want guys to perform, to chuck their talent around and to be the best people they can possibly be - there's no point living if you don't want to be the best person you can possibly be."

Pietersen freely admits he wants England to follow Australia's example by continually pressing for improvement - starting with this winter's tour to India, when they face a gruelling seven-match series spanning 19 days.

"If we keep ourselves fit and keep ourselves on the park then this team can go from strength to strength," he said. "The key for us now is to build on what we've done and keep trying to get better.

"I watched an interview with (Australia captain) Ricky Ponting during the last World Cup and he was asked how easy or hard it was to captain Australia.

"He said it was easy because every side wakes up looking to get better and better each day. If our mentality can be if we wake up every single morning trying to get better then I think it's a recipe for success."

Pietersen and the rest of the squad now have several weeks off before they jet out to Antigua for the multi-million dollar match against the Stanford All Stars.

But he is more concerned with the tough challenge of winning the one-day and Test matches in India before Christmas to continue England's momentum as they build towards next summer's Ashes series.

"I know there are going to be hard and testing times, especially the trip to India because it's not easy for any team to tour India," he added.

"But I also have a philosophy of really enjoying the good times because when the bad times come along you long for those good times.

"You make sure you enjoy the days like winning this series because it's going to be tough in India and we'll just have to deal with it."