Cricket world cup: James Tredwell dares to dream as England face anxious wait

Captain Andrew Strauss admitted the selections of Tredwell, Luke Wright and Chris Tremlett for their first action of England's tortuous campaign amounted to a significant gamble.

Yet each - Tredwell with runs and four wickets, Wright with a precious 44 down the order and Tremlett with a crucial late catch - repaid the faith to inch past the Windies.

England, who yesterday summoned Surrey seamer Jade Dernbach from Lions duty in the West Indies to replace the injured Ajmal Shahzad in this tournament, can therefore contemplate a quarter-final place after all - as long as South Africa and India keep Bangladesh and the West Indies in their place today and tomorrow.

That detail ensured a measured tone from Tredwell as he assessed England's pretensions to add a maiden World Cup to their ICC World Twenty20 and Ashes successes of the past 12 months.

"That's the worst thing," he said, acknowledging a nervy weekend in store at England's last-eight holding camp in Delhi.

"We'd obviously just like to be through now. We can only hope those results go our way and we can go from strength to strength in the next couple of games."

England will be unlucky to be denied the chance to progress further and Tredwell, for one, is bold enough to look beyond Sunday - cautiously.

He is not the first Englishman to compare England's sub-continent story so far with a faltering start and glorious finish to win the first International Cricket Council silverware in their history last spring.

"It's similar to the Caribbean in the Twenty20s - almost out, then you get over the line and into that must-win phase. Sometimes that brings the best out in people and we hope that's the case with us."

For Tredwell, this World Cup is already and will always be memorable after his starring role in another thrilling match on Thursday. The 29-year old moved centre stage, or at least into some of the limelight, as he grabbed the lion's share of his and his more celebrated off-spinning partner, Graeme Swann's seven Windies wickets.

Tredwell knew he could not take a backward step if he was to prove the equal of Chris Gayle and Co. "I just try to take the guy at the other end out of it a little bit," he said. "You have your plan and try to execute it to the best of your ability. If he ends up whacking that for six or four, then fair play. But if you do everything right, you hope it will come out your way."

As for England's apparent addiction to nerve-shredding tight finishes, Tredwell suspects it will all pay off in the end."It must be entertaining to watch at home, he said. "I hope we don't have too many games like that over the next two weeks, but a couple of close ones might stand us in good stead for what's to come. We need to play better, first and foremost. But if those situations do come up again, we know what to do." He can certainly draw great personal confidence from yesterday's drama. "That's the toughest it can get," he added. "You don't want to be in those situations all the time, but you know if you come through them you're doing all right. There was a bit more pressure on me, I suppose, because I hadn't taken a wicket in ODIs."

For England, meanwhile, it is onwards and upwards, as long as lightning does not strike twice over the next two days.