A baseball game in Japan has dragged on for four days with two high school teams slogging it out over a record 50 innings, in a scenario more usually associated with cricket.

Chukyo and Sotoku began their slug-fest on Thursday in the semi-final of Japan's high school rubber-ball baseball championship in Akashi, western Japan.

But after the usual nine innings in which both teams' pitchers outfoxed all batters for a scoreless draw, the game went into extra time.

At the bottom of the 15th inning, the umpire called it a day and ordered the teams to come back to the field after a night's rest.

For two solid days, batters repeatedly stepped up to the plate only to be dismissed without a single run being scored.

It was not until Sunday morning that Chukyo's captain broke the deadlock, walloping a double in the record-breaking 50th inning.

That inspired a team-mate, who scored one more later in the inning, giving Chukyo a hard-earned 3-0 victory.

It also landed Taiga Matsui, the team's ace pitcher, with a truly impressive set of figures, having been hit just 26 times off 709 pitches.

But there was no rest for Chukyo, who were back on the field hours later, dispatching fellow finalists Miura Gakuen in a more reasonable afternoon-length game.

The Japan High School Baseball Federation said the semi-final was the longest match that had ever taken place in the high school championship, which was started in 1956.

The semi-final between Japanese high school teams Chukyo and Sotoku was scoreless for 49 innings

AFP