The Czech Republic have been known to produce big scores in the past, and they did so again today as they made the sixth highest total in men's T20Is and their openers put together the third highest partnership.

Their exploits came in the second match of the day at the Marsa Sports Club ground in Malta as they took on Bulgaria. Choosing to bat first after winning the toss, openers Sabawoon Davizi and Dylan Steyn put on 220. Whilst some of the hitting on display was brutal, truth be told they were aided by some at times rather sloppy fielding by their opponents.

The partnership ended when Steyn was caught for 106, scored from just 55 balls. Davizi made up for falling just short of his century yesterday by scoring 115. He was still not out at the end of the innings. Coming into the final over they needed a highly unlikely 41 to beat their own record for highest men's T20I total that they share with Afghanistan.

With Sudesh "The Beast" Wickramasekara, who jointly holds the record for the fastest men's T20I century, on strike though, they were going to make a decent attempt at third place, needing 25 to take that spot in the highest total list. With Chris Lakov bowling, Wickramasekara scored 20 from the first four balls but was surprised by a sharp bouncer from the fifth ball and ended up hitting his own wicket. They were the only five balls he faced. A dot ball was then a rather tame end to the innings. In reaching 258-2 though, they had the sixth highest men's T20I total, and became the first to make 250 or higher twice in the format.

Bulgaria's opening partnership of 123 between Aravinda De Silva (61 from 51 balls) and Chris Lakov (59 from 45) and their total of 170-7 would have been decent enough in most T20Is, but this wasn't most T20Is and they lost by 88 runs. Naveed Ahmed was their best bowler, taking 3-29.

Earlier, in the day's opening contest, the Czechs were involved in a close match against hosts Malta. The home team were put into bat and scored 164-8, Basil George top scoring with 51. The visitors were looking out of contention when they lost their eighth wicket from the first ball of the 18th over with the score on 127, but the ninth wicket pairing of Arun Ashokan and Satyajit Sengupta got them remarkably close.

Nine were taken from the rest of that over, followed by 17 from the penultimate over. Justin Shaju kept things tight at the start of the final over, conceding three runs to leave the Czechs needing nine from the last three balls. Ashokan hit four to keep things interesting, followed by two runs from the next ball. Needing three from the last - or two to send it to a super over - Ashokan was run out attempting the second run and Malta won by 2 wickets.

The day ended with Romania batting first against Hungary. Taranjeet Singh dominated an opening partnership of 56 with his captain Ramesh Satheesan which ended when Singh was out for 43 from 25 balls one ball before the end of the powerplay. Vasu Saini top scored for the Romanians with 47 as they scored 158-7.

Hungary's reply was led by Zahir Mohammed who scored 78 from just 42 balls. Abishek Kheterpal clubbed 23 from 11 balls to help secure a six wicket win with 15 balls to spare.

Malta's win earlier leaves them still unbeaten at the top of the table and they have already secured their place in Sunday's final. They have a day off tomorrow. Hungary are in second place with six points and they will also have a day off tomorrow. The Czechs are two points behind them in third place and with a game in hand plus a huge net run rate after today's explosive performance. They have a chance to close the gap when they take on Romania tomorrow.

Romania, Bulgaria and Gibraltar are all without a win. In addition to their match against the Czechs, Romania will play Bulgaria, who will also be in action twice as they will take on Gibraltar first up.