It took the Ireland Academy side less than eight overs to confirm their superiority over the opposition at the T10 European Championships in Malaga.

That’s how long they batted to win not one but two matches, by nine wickets against Austria and 10 wickets against the Czech Republic, on the opening day at the Cartama Oval as they chased down totals of 93 and 44 respectively.

Cliftonville Academy’s Max Burton, who also took the catch of the day, as wicket-keeper diving way to his left. won both matches with a six, finishing 30 not out from eight balls in the second match after playing second fiddle to Terenure’s Seamus Lynch who hit 59 not out from 18 balls, with seven sixes, against Austria.

The introduction of CIYMS’ Carson McCullough and late call-up Cian Robertson of Instonians for the game against the Czech Republic saw, remarkably, all 10 overs bowled by left armers, with Lisburn’s Matthew Humphreys, Jamie Forbes and Mikey O'Reilly each taking three wickets across the two games - O’Reilly at a cost of just 16 runs from his four overs.

All five teams will play two games a day this week with Spain, who also won their first two games yesterday, Ireland’s next opponents at 12.30pm today before they play their second game against Austria at 6.30pm. All games are live on Freesports.