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Japan\u2019s Hugo Tani-Kelly<\/a> hit a 79* against defending champions Australia in the U19 World Cup on Tuesday (January 20) after a ton on Youth ODI debut against Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n Hugo Tani-Kelly of Japan starts off U19 World Cup in style <\/p>\n Fresh off a hundred in their opening U19 World Cup match, Tani-Kelly<\/a> was called upon in just the second over of Japan\u2019s group-stage game against Australia. He took his time, getting to six off 22 before a booming cover drive took him into double digits. He added 58 crucial runs with opener Nihar Parmar for the second wicket and 44 with Charlie Hara-Hinze for the third. Charlie’s brothers, Montgomery and Gabriel, were also part of Japan’s XI<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even as wickets fell at the other end, with Japan going from 105-2 to 118-6, the 17-year-old kept his composure, eventually getting to his fifty through an edge that went for four. His 72-run eighth-wicket partnership with the second of the three Hara-Hinze brothers, Montgomery, pushed Japan\u2019s total close to the 200-run mark, which they eventually crossed to finish at 201-8.<\/p>\n Tani-Kelly\u2019s fighting half-century against Australia came after another one-man show in their opening U19 World Cup game against Sri Lanka on Saturday (January 17). Viran Chamuditha and Dimantha Mahavithana\u2019s record 328-run opening partnership had driven Sri Lanka to a massive 387.<\/p>\n Japan were never in the game, but Tani-Kelly\u2019s resolve stood out. He walked out on the third delivery in the game and remained unbeaten even as his side lost by 203 runs, hitting a 162-ball 101, with six fours and a six on his YODI debut. This was also Japan’s first-ever hundred in the U19 World Cup on their second appearance.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The two World Cup knocks took the teenager\u2019s 50-plus tally against full-member teams in 50-over cricket to three. Tani-Kelly, as a 15-year-old, had scored a 50 against India in the 2024 U19 Asia Cup. However, that wasn’t recognised as an official Youth ODI. Tani-Kelly will next be in action when Japan face Ireland in their final group-stage game of the World Cup on Thursday (January 22).<\/p>\n Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores<\/a>, match stats, quizzes<\/a> and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news<\/a>, player updates, team standings,<\/a> match highlights, video analysis<\/a> and live match odds<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cover StoriesCover Stories AsiaCover Stories UKCover Stories India<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Hugo Tani-Kelly hit a 79* against defending champions Australia in the U19 World Cup on Tuesday (January…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-381196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}