Richard Green warned Omega Mission Hill World Cup trophy rivals Spain not to take anything for granted after Australia put themselves into a share of the lead with a nine-under-par 63 in Saturday's third round fourballs.
Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez and Pablo Larrazabal combined for a superb 63 of their own in second-round foursomes on Friday to move four strokes clear at the top of the leaderboard.
Their performance on Friday was so impressive that they could have been forgiven for already contemplating having their names etched onto the World Cup Roll of Honour.
However, the Australian duo of Green and Brendan Jones clearly had other ideas as they set about eating into that advantage from the first tee on Saturday.
Green shot two successive birdies from the second before Japan Tour regular Jones added three more before the turn.
Green then picked up shots on the par-five 11th and 14th but Australia still trailed Spain by three strokes heading onto the final few holes.
However, the turning point came on the par-five 15th where Jones shot an eagle three while Larrazabal bogeyed the same hole for Spain.
Jones then sank a birdie putt from three feet on the 18th to move Australia into a share of the lead alongside Spain with play switching back to foursomes for Sunday's final round.
"When I played the World Cup in 1998, I can remember there being a lot of fluctuations in score," said Green.
"It didn't really matter if you were three behind or four behind.
"The closing case today for us was the 15th hole, Brendan eagling the hole and Spain bogeying the hole; there's a three-shot swing straightaway, and that got us straight back into the game.
"That can happen at any stage during the round, especially tomorrow, when we are probably not as reliant on one another, but we are probably more putting a lot of trust in one another to hit good golf shots at the right time.
"I always knew that we could catch that up. I feel very good out there with Brendan as part of the team. We are very confident."
For Spain it was something of a tale of two teams having been in such fine fettle on Friday before producing a more mixed performance on Saturday.
It looked as though they would only increase their lead as Jimenez picked up a birdie on the par-four fourth and then shot an eagle two on the sixth before Larrazabal sank a birdie putt on the ninth.
However, they struggled somewhat coming home, managing just two birdies against one bogey.
But Larrazabal remains confident he and Jimenez can still engineer a first World Cup win for Spain in 24 years.
"The only difference is, it is golf," said the 2008 European Tour Rookie of the Year when asked what the difference was between their second and third rounds. "It was another day.
"In golf you can play great, shoot 63 in foursomes one day and then a 67 in fourballs another. That's golf.
"We can make tomorrow another 63."
Sweden, represented by the two highest-ranked players at the tournament in Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson, are third at 18 under after a 66 on Saturday while Germany are a further stroke behind in fourth place following their 68.
Ireland's Graeme McDowell and Paul McGinley maintained their impressive displays at the World Cup after a four-under 68 on Saturday left them on 15 under for the tournament while England's duo of Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher produced their best performance of the tournament so far, carding a 63 and are tied 12th.
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