Hong Kong skipper Tanwir Afzal is confident that his side can bounce back from its opening match in its vital clash against Afghanistan in Nagpur on Thursday.

Speaking to media at the VCA Stadium, the captain said: “We’ve played against Afghanistan two to three times in the last few months, and only lost the last game. We are in a really good position and I think that we can repeat the history of our previous results. If you see our batting maturity, we have Ryan Campbell and Jamie Atkinson back in our side, so I think that we are in a position to beat them.”

After losing its opening match against Zimbabwe on Tuesday, Tanwir said he was confident that his side could bounce back in the crucial clash against regional rival Afghanistan: “It was a close game against Zimbabwe, so we’ll come with a positive attitude to tomorrow’s game, and try to produce some better results. We all know that to stay alive in this group, we need to play good cricket.”

Both matches on the opening day of the ICC World Twenty20 2016 saw the chasing side lose, and the captain, who scored his third-highest T20I score against Zimbabwe on Tuesday (31*), said the toss could be an important factor in Thursday’s game: “We’ll see tomorrow what’s going to happen, and how the pitch played in the game before us. We’ll decide something that will favour our team.”

Tanwir was confident that the Hong Kong batting line up would perform in Thursday’s crucial clash. “We believe in our batting ability, and of course some days you can have an off day, sometimes you don’t perform to expectations on the day. We have a few in form players and I think they can deliver in the next game.”

The sides have won two matches each from their four previous T20I encounters, with Afghanistan winning the most recent encounter by 66 runs at the Asia Cup in February.

" id="docs-internal-guid-fc9c9955-5c37-3dc3-acc4-1cf78242dc16">香港板球隊隊長阿夫扎(Tanwir Afzal)有信心球隊能夠從揭幕戰的敗仗振作，準備應付今晚面對阿富汗的重要賽事。

昨日會見傳媒時，隊長表示：「港隊過去幾月已經面對過阿富汗兩、三次，只有在最近一場落敗。我們狀態很好，我認為港隊可以重演勝利。我們的擊球手相當成熟，尤其有甘禮仁(Ryan Campbell)及艾堅遜(Jamie Atkinson)重返球隊，我認為絕對有能力擊敗阿富汗。」

星期二揭幕戰敗於津巴布韋後，阿夫扎有信心港隊可以重整旗鼓，面對亞洲宿敵阿富汗：「上仗對津巴布韋戰況非常緊湊，所以我們都抱著正面的心態備戰，嘗試爭取更好的成績。如果想繼續爭取晉級的話，這場賽事非常關鍵。」

今屆世界賽揭幕日的兩場賽事中，較後進攻的球隊皆落敗。隊長表示，擲毫對賽果有頗大影響：「我們會在賽前觀察，尤其是球場草地的情況，如果勝出擲毫，我們會小心作出選擇。」

阿夫扎亦對球隊的主力擊球手很有信心：「我很相信球隊的得分能力，當然有些時候會有狀態下滑，有時會與期望有差異，但我們幾位擊球手的狀態都很好，他們將會交出好表現。」

兩隊在過去四場20回合制國際賽各勝兩場，最近一場為二月的亞洲盃賽事，阿富汗以66分之差擊敗港隊。<