The Aussie Team are still in with good chance of advancing to Sunday’s single matches at the International Crown after another day of drama being played at the Caves Valley Golf Club, Owings Mills, Maryland.

After two rounds of the pool matches, Karrie Webb, Katherine Kirk, Lindsey Wright and amateur Minjee Lee are tied for third in Pool B.

The Aussie team stayed with the same pairings for Friday’s match against Japan. Japan was always going to be a tough match after they sat on top of Pool B after the opening day.

Unfortunately Webb and Lee were not able to reproduce the form from Thursday and eventually went down to Mamiko Higa and Mika Miyazato 3&2.

While Wright and Kirk were involved in the match of the day when they took on Ai Miyazato and Sakura Yokomine. Kirk and Wright, who represented Australia together as amateurs, were on fire on the opening nine holes, they were five up after 7 holes, Japan got one back on the 8th before the Aussies made another birdie on the 9th to be 5 up with nine to play.

Wright birdied the par 4 11th for the team to be 6 up with seven to play. However, being put on the clock on the 12th hole really threw a spanner into the works, they lost their rhythm and momentum and Japan capitalised.

Yokomine birdied two of the final six holes and while Miyazato birdied the par 4 16th hole. Yokomine`s monster birdie on the par 3 17th kept Japan in with a chance of halving the match. Unfortunately Kirk and Wright couldn’t do better than bogey on the par 4 18th and a par was enough for the Japan team to square the match.

After the round, the duo was asked about the match which they seemed to have in their keeping, “We got put on the clock, I think, I don`t know, 12? And it just was, just, yeah, we got put on the clock. We lost our timing and that was pretty much it. We played all right. I didn`t the last hole, but, yeah, it was really disappointing.” Wright said

Kirk was quick to turn her attention to Saturday match against Sweden, “We got to focus on winning four points tomorrow. So it hurts, obviously, but we can`t change what`s happened, but we can learn from it and certainly go out there tomorrow and try and make amends.”

If Australia can win both matches tomorrow, they are definitely still in with a good chance of going through to Sunday singles.

In Pool A, after being shut out on Day 1, the Americans turned the tables going 2-0-0 in their matches on Friday against Spain and are now tied for second with Chinese Taipei in Pool A with 4 total points. After winning both of their matches against Chinese Taipei on Friday, Thailand took the lead in Pool A with 5 total points.

Saturday draw will see Webb and Lee take on the formidable pair of Caroline Hedwall and Anna Nordqvist, while Kirk and Wright will take on Pernilla Lindberg and Mikaela Parmlid.