Gibbs to miss tournament opener

Herschelle Gibbs will miss the Proteas' opening match in the ICC Champions Trophy tournament against Sri Lanka at Centurion but should be fit to take his place in most of the remainder of the programme.

"Herschelle suffered a minor rib and intercostal injury in the warm-up match against the West Indies at Potchefstroom on Friday," commented team physiotherapist Brandon Jackson. "We will start rehab tomorrow and rest the injury for the next few days.

"We will re-assess his position after Tuesday's match with the aim of getting him back on the field either for the New Zealand match on Thursday or the one against England next Sunday."

Gibbs suffered the injury when he took sudden, evasive action to avoid a straight drive by his captain, Graeme Smith, in the opening overs of the West Indies match. He batted on for a while but then pulled up in discomfort after running a sharp two.

The Proteas are in the fortunate position that they have an excellent back-up batsman in Hashim Amla who averaged almost 50 (strike rate of 76) in the away ODI series against Australia as a replacement for Smith including a top score of 97 at Perth.

Prior to that he had made his maiden ODI century against Bangladesh at Willowmoore Park where he played in Gibbs' place.