Nepal Captain Paras Khadka
Supporters gather around Nepal Cricket Team Bus as Skipper Paras Khadka steps down. [Reuters]

Debutants Hong Kong and Nepal face each other in the second qualifying match in Group A of the T20 World Cup at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong, Bangladesh on Sunday.

Where to Watch Live

The play is scheduled to start at 1:30pm GMT. Live coverage will be on Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports 2 HD. Live text updates of the game will be available on ESPNCricinfo.

Overview

Hong Kong have been preparing for their T20 World Cup qualifying campaign having played eight matches in the last few weeks out of which they have won six. During the T20 Warm-up games, they played Zimbabwe and Netherlands at the same venue and registered victories on both occasions.

Zimbabwe had set a target of 154 runs for Hong Kong to chase and they never gave up until the final delivery of their innings and snatched the victory scoring a six.

Hong Kong's opening batsmen failed to set up a platform and had already lost six wickets with 89 runs on the scoreboard in the 14<sup>th over. But Mark Chapman (53) and Tanwir Afzal (37) combined to lift Jamie Atkinson's side to victory.

Hong Kong then faced Netherlands in their last warm-up fixture and looked to be heading for a defeat after losing all their wickets for just 127 runs.19-yaer-old Chapman was yet again their star batsman adding 50 runs to his personal tally.

However, their bowlers posted a strong response to send the Dutch packing for 100 runs within 17 overs. Haseeb Amjad shined with the ball taking six wickets, while Nizakat Khan and Afzal got two and one wicket respectively while Ehsan Nawaz can take credit for dismissing Eric Szwarczynski with a run-out.

Meanwhile, Nepal's preparations for the qualifying matches have been sour after suffering back-to-back defeats against Ireland and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the warm-up matches.

In the first game against Ireland, they scored 137 runs in the opening innings losing seven wickets in the process. Gyanendra Malla was their top scorer with 47 runs while skipper Paras Khadka scored 31. However, the Nepalese bowlers could not restrict the William Porterfield's side from successfully chasing the target with five wickets and as many balls to spare.

Against UAE, Nepal could only post 95 runs on the scoreboard before losing all their wickets. Khadka (27), Subash Khakurel (28) and Basant Regmi (10) were the only batsmen to manage achieving a double-digit score to their personal tally. However, they could not arrest their opponents in the same way as Khurram Khan's side ran out winners in the 19<sup>th over with six wickets to spare.

Hong Kong and Nepal are pitted against Bangladesh and Afghanistan in Group A knowing only one team will progress from this stage.

Team News

Hong Kong

Probable Lineup: Nizakat Khan, Irfan Ahmed, Jamie Atkinson (c & wk), Mark Chapman, Munir Dar, Tanwir Afzal, Nadeem Ahmed, Haseeb Amjad, Irfan Ahmed, Ehsan Nawaz, Babar Hayat

Nepal

Probable Lineup: Subash Khakurel (wk), Sagar Pun, Gyanendra Malla, Paras Khadka (c), Basant Regmi, Naresh Budayair, Binod Bhandari. Sompal Kami, Jitendra Mukhiya, Sharad Vesawkar, Shakti Gauchan

Hong Kong