The match between Nepal and Hong Kong is scheduled to be held at Stormont, Belfast, in Northern Ireland at 19:00 NST.
After facing a humiliating eight-wicket defeat with its lowest total of 53 runs in the shortest format against co-host Ireland on Monday, a win over Hong Kong will be crucial for Nepal's dream of winning the tournament.
"Getting bowled out for 53, I don't think there's much that you can talk about. All we can think is that we should just forget this game took place. We wished to have had a better game today. If we had scored 130-140, which we were targeting, we thought we could have pushed them but we just couldn't bat at all." Nepal skipper Paras Khadka was quoted as saying about the match with Ireland by cricinfo.com.
"We knew we have to put in extra efforts to beat Ireland. Now we have to focus and play our regular game to win the rest of the games," said Nepal coach Pubudu Dassanayake. "However, we are not in our comfort zone but we have the skills to handle these teams. We will work hard and do well in the remaining matches of the tournament."
"Though Hong Kong is a team with one or two good players we cannot relax. Irfan Ahmed will be one among them," Dassanayake said.
Despite the crushing defeat against Ireland on Monday, Nepali skipper Paras is also determined to bounce back in the tournament and do better in the upcoming matches.
"The tournament is pretty wide open for all teams. It's very important that we keep the focus going. There will be opportunities so it's about how hungry you are. The more hungry you are the better results will come in your favor. We have the talent and the potential, now it's about putting in the numbers and performances. With the kind of unity and the team spirit that we have, we hope to make it through," Paras was quoted as saying.
Nepal is in the fourth position on the basis of inferior net run rate despite having equal three points as of Papua New Guinea and Namibia. Out of three matches played in the seven-team group, Nepal has a win and a defeat while one match was washed out. Nepal had defeated USA by six wickets, shared point with Namibia and facing eight wickets defeat against defending champion Ireland.
However, Hong Kong, which has only one point from two matches it played, is yet to taste victory. Hong Kong stands sixth in the group A standings.
Hong Kong faced nine-wicket defeat against Jersey in its opener and shared a point against Papua New Guinea in the second match, which was abandoned following bad weather.
Looking at past records of the Asian rivals, Nepal has an upper hand against Hong Kong. Nepal had defeated Hong Kong by 28 runs and five wickets in the 2012 and 2013 editions of ICC World T20 Qualifiers respectively. Similarly, Nepal had recorded 80-run win against the same opponent in ICC World Twenty20 held in Bangladesh last year. However, Nepal lost to Hong Kong by two wickets during their last encounter of T20I match played in Sri Lanka in November 2014.
Nepal is yet to face Papua New Guinea (on Friday) and Jersey (on Saturday) in group matches.
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