In a sickle cutting system including a plurality of guard fingers at spaced positions across a cutter bar across which a reciprocating sickle knife passes, each guard finger has a forwardly projecting tip portion in front of a ledger surface and a rearwardly projecting tang portion connected to a rear end of the tip portion and extending therefrom over the ledger surface to a rear edge of the tang portion located over the blade. The lower surface of the tang portion includes a first portion adjacent the tip portion which is generally parallel to the ledger surface and a second portion adjacent the rear edge which is inclined at an angle away from the ledger surface. The width of the tang portion across the rear of the tang portion is equal to or greater than 1.5 inches.