de Villiers out of Champions League

AB de Villiers' broken finger places him in doubt for
South Africa's home series against Australia

AB de Villiers has been ruled out of the remainder of the Champions League Twenty20 after fracturing a finger on his left hand during a Royal Challengers Bangalore training session at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The injury could force de Villiers to miss the start of Australia's tour of South Africa, which begins with a Twenty20 international on October 13.


"He [de Villiers] will probably be coming back to South Africa tonight," South Africa's team manager Mohammad Moosajee told ESPNcricinfo. "He will see our panel of hand specialists after that, and we will decide what the plan of action is.


"I understand from the Bangalore physio that he broke the third finger on his left hand during a fielding drill. It is quite serious, that's why he is coming back."


The home series against Australia will be de Villiers' first after taking over as South Africa's limited-overs captain from Graeme Smith in June. South Africa play the first of two Twenty20s against Australia on October 13, followed by three one-dayers that begin on October 19.


In de Villiers' absence, either Tillakaratne Dilshan or Arun Karthik will keep wicket for the Royal Challengers. "Not having AB is a big loss," Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers batsman, said. "But we have quality players in our squad who can cope with it."


The Royal Challengers play Kolkata Knight Riders in Bangalore on September 29, with games against Somerset and South Australia to come. They lost their first game of the CLT20 and another loss would make a semi-final berth unlikely. However, three wins would make their qualification almost a certainty - two other sides in Group B would need to be tied on three wins for net run-rate to come into contention.

South Australia to persist with three spinners

Callum Ferguson wants a braver approach
from South Australia's batsmen

Though South Australia Redbacks' three spinners conceded 69 runs for no wicket in eight overs against the Warriors, they are planning to play the same combination against Kolkata Knight Riders.

"The three spinners have worked very well for us over the last two years," batsman Callum Ferguson said. "I don't see that being any different coming up on Tuesday or for the rest of the tournament. We are very confident about the strategy and we think that it will bring success."

Spinners Nathan Lyon, Adil Rashid and Aaron O'Brien played a major part in South Australia's victorious Big Bash campaign in February, taking 29 wickets in seven games at under seven runs an over. However, insisting on including all of them could backfire against a side like Kolkata Knight Riders, with fine players of spin in Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan.

In the game against the Warriors, South Australia's plight was compounded by the fact that there wasn't any control from the other end, with an erratic Shaun Tait going for 53 in his four overs. It was left to Daniel Christian and Daniel Harris to somehow keep the Warriors from exploding with 4 for 47 from eight overs of tight medium-pace.

It might be too much to expect the two Daniels to perform the holding role again, but Ferguson maintained that South Australia had things covered. "Our attack has good all-round capability. Dan Christian fills that [holding seamer's] role very well. Dan Harris did a very good job containing yesterday as well. While they may not be express, we think that Christian has got enough pace."

Another worrying aspect for South Australia was the way their batsmen approached the chase of 172 against the Warriors. Only two of the top seven managed to strike at above 100 and Ferguson was hopeful of a more purposeful approach against the Knight Riders. "We didn't think that our guys got out to outrageous shots. When you lose early wickets, it makes it difficult to rebuild the momentum straight away on a slow pitch.

"Coming up on Tuesday, we are looking to be a bit braver with how we go about it. We are going to go out and play like we normally do. We are confident that our results over the last two years have shown that this does not happen to us very often and it was just a one-off.

"We are a better side than we showed last night. We are very confident we will turn it around against KKR."

Injured Southee out of Champions League Twenty20

A knee injury has ruled out Tim Southee
from the Champions League Twenty20

Tim Southee, the New Zealand and Chennai Super Kings seamer, will miss the Champions League Twenty20 after injuring his knee. He was supposed to join the Chennai team this week but will remain in New Zealand to undergo treatment.

"Tim has suffered some cartilage damage to his left knee while preparing for the Champions League.," John Buchanan, the New Zealand director of cricket, said. "He requires further assessment to determine the seriousness of the injury but initial signs indicate that he is unlikely to require surgery.

"He will undergo a period of intense rehabilitation and attempt to return to training shortly." Whether or not he will be available for New Zealand's tour of Zimbabwe next month will be made known later, Buchanan said.

Southee won the ICC Twenty20 Performance of the Year award for his spell of 5 for 18 against Pakistan in Auckland. He has picked up 74 wickets in 59 Twenty20 matches at 23.05 but has been expensive, conceding 8.07 runs an over. He'd been in good form of late in Twenty20 cricket and took 6 for 16, including a hat-trick, for Essex against Glamorgan in the Friends Life T20 in July.

Chennai, the defending champions, play their first Champions League game on September 24.