Not for the first time, Lee and Kyriacou rallied brilliantly to recover from two holes down with seven to play to beat Chinese pair Yan Liu and Weiwei Zhang 2 up in Friday's crucial opening four-ball match.

With team-mates Hannah Green and Grace Kim narrowly losing to former world No.1 Ruoning Yin and Ruixin Liu on the 18th hole, Australia split the points 1-1 for the second day running in Seoul.

And once again Lee and Kyriacou's precious point could prove telling entering Saturday's final pool matches.

The top-seeded United States lived up to their favouritism to be the only team to secure a spot in Sunday's semi-finals after recording a second straight 2-0 win.

Friday's victims were defending champions Thailand, with Angel Yin and Yealimi Noh inflicting a first defeat in seven Crown outings on world No.1 Jeeno Thitikul.

Yin and Noh crushed Thitikul and Pajaree Anannarukarn 5 and 4, while Lauren Coughlin and Lilia Vu beat Chanettee Wannasaen and Jasmine Suwannapura 3 and 2 to propel the USA to the top of Pool A with a perfect four points.

Australia (two points) is second in Pool A ahead of a showdown with the Americans on Saturday.

Runners-up to Thailand at the 2023 edition of the prestigious biennial event, the Australians likely need to win one of their remaining two four-ball matches to book a semis berth.

"It's going to be pretty exciting. I think we have a good chance come tomorrow, and hopefully we can put up a good show," Lee said.

With one point each, Thailand and China will clash in the other Pool A tie, knowing only a 2-0 victory will guarantee semi-final qualification for either side.

Australia being in the box seat to progress seemed unlikely when Lee and Kyriacou were staring down a two-hole deficit early on the back nine at New Korea Country Club.

But four birdies from world No.3 Lee dragged the dynamite duo into the lead, before Kyriacou sealed victory on the 17th hole.

"We struggled a little bit in the start. Our games were a little bit off to start the day, and kind of came around maybe middle of the back nine," Lee said.

The pair is now four from five together in the competition.

Lydia Ko's Team World is in pole position to progress from Pool B after downing third-seeded hosts Korea 1.5 to 0.5 to climb to the top of the group with three points.

Charley Hull drained a birdie at the last for the Englishwoman and Kiwi Ko to edge Hyo Joo Kim and Hye-Jin Choi 1 up, after Brooke Henderson's clutch putting helped the Canadian and Taiwan's Wei-Ling Hsu to square their match with Jin Young Ko and Haeran Ryu.

Japan and Sweden both have 1.5 points after splitting their tie 1-1 on Friday.

Miyu Yamashita and Rio Takeda earned second seed Japan its first full point of the week with a 3 and 2 victory over Madelene Sagstrom and Ingrid Lindblad.

Sweden replied when Maja Stark and Linn Grant beat Ayaka Furue and Mao Saigo 3 and 2, leaving Sweden needing to topple Team World and Japan to defeat Korea on Saturday to have a hope of reaching the semis.