Sweden, the defending champions, and Italy's Molinari brothers closed to within a shot of the leaders Ireland after the third round fourballs at the World Cup in China on Saturday.
Ireland, leading by three strokes overnight, were unable to repeat their first-round heroics in front of sizeable galleries at Mission Hills in southern China, their 64 leaving them at 26 under after 54 holes.
Franceso Molinari holed an 18ft putt on the par-four 18th for a 61 to lie one shot adrift of Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, before Sweden's Henrik Stenson also birdied the last to draw level in second place.
Ireland, who started the $5.5million tournament with a 58 in the opening fourballs Thursday, were off to a strong start with a McDowell birdie at the second before McIlroy holed a 12-ft putt for a birdie at the 3rd but were unable to maintain their cushion.
McIlroy and McDowell set World Cup alight
McIlroy, ranked no 10 in the world, said Ireland were still positive despite seeing their lead cut, adding that they had not taken full advantage of the fourball format.
"We seem to play the holes that we played well, we both played them well," he said. "That sometimes doesn't work in fourball too well. You just sort of dovetail a little bit.
"We played well and we probably left a couple of shots out there, but we are still in a great position going into tomorrow and that's the main thing. So still very positive."
Both players said a win would be the highlight of their careers so far. "You know, it's very special to win an event, but to win it with a partner and to win it with a friend would make it even more special," said McIlroy, who finished second on the European money list.
The Molinaris finished strongly with six birdies on the back nine after lying four shots off the pace overnight.
Edoardo Molinari, who defeated Sweden's Robert Karlsson in a play-off to win the Dunlop Phoenix men's golf tournament last weekend, rolled in a 20-foot putt at the par-three 17th before his brother birdied the last.
"We played very well today," Edoardo said. "He was probably a little bit better than I was today. Both of us we managed to make a lot of birdies and hole the putts in the right moments.
"It was definitely a good score out there today because the pins were quite difficult, and even the other teams are not shooting as low as the first round. So I think 61 today is a great score."
Sweden hit four consecutive birdies on the back nine including at the 15th, where world No 7 Stenson missed a six-foot putt for an eagle. The Swedes have yet to drop a shot at this year's World Cup.
"We are right in the mix tomorrow and it's going to be I think Ireland and Italy in the last group," Stenson said.
"We have the recipe from last year with a 63 in the [final round] foursome. If we can get anything close to that tomorrow, I think we have a good chance."
Japan and South Africa lie a further six shots back on 19 under, ahead of England and Wales, on 18 under.
Last year's runners-up Spain, led by Sergio Garcia, are on a total of nine under despite coming into the tournament as one of the favourites.
The Omega Mission Hills World Cup, taking place near Shenzhen, is a 72-hole event with each team comprising two players.
The first and third days are fourball, in which four balls are used and the player with the fewest shots takes the hole for their team. The second and final days involve foursomes play, where the teams compete using only one ball per pair.
190 Ireland (Graeme McDowell/Rory McIlroy) 58, 68, 64
191 Italy (Edoardo Molinari/Francesco Molinari) 64, 66, 61;
Sweden (Robert Karlsson/Henrik Stenson) 64, 65, 62
197 South Africa (Rory Sabbatini/Richard Sterne) 65, 70, 62;
Japan (Hiroyuki Fujita/Ryuji Imada) 62, 71, 64
198 England (Ian Poulter/Ross Fisher) 66, 69, 63;
Wales (Stephen Dodd/Jamie Donaldson) 66, 68, 64
199 Venezuela (Alfredo Adrian/Jhonattan Vegas) 67, 67,65
200 South Korea (Charlie Wi/Yang Young-Eun) 64-75-61
Australia (Stuart Appleby/Robert Allenby) 68-70-62)
Argentina (Tano Goya/Rafael Echenique) 61-75-64
India (Jyoti Randhawa/Jeev Milkha Singh) 67-68-65
201 Chile (Hugo Leon/Martin Ureta) 69-67-65
202 Denmark (Soren Kjeldsen/Soren Hansen) 66-70-66
Singapore (Lam Chih Bing/Mardan Mamat) 66-70-66
203 Canada (Graham Delaet/Stuart Anderson) 64-74-65
Germany (Alex Cejka/Martin Kaymer) 66-71-66
204 Philippines (Marciano Pucay/Angelo Que) 68-72-64
Thailand (Prayad Marksaeng/Thongchai Jaidee) 67-70-67
China (Zhang Lianwei/Liang Wenchong) 65-71-68
205 New Zealand (Danny Lee/David Smail) 67-68-70
206 Scotland (David Drysdale/Alastair Forsyth) 69-73-64)
USA (Nick Watney/John Merrick) 67-72-67
207 France (Christian Cevaer/Thomas Levet) 67-73-67
Spain (Gonzalo Fernandez Castano/Sergio Garcia) 69-71-67
208 Pakistan (Muhammad Munir/Muhammad Shabbir) 69-75-64)
Taiwan (Lin Wen-tang/Lu Wei-chih) 67-74-67
211 Brazil (Rafael Barcellos/Ronaldo Francisco) 68-75-68
Source:timesonline.co.uk/
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