Friday November 18, 2011, 06:38 AM

The Internationals team stayed within two points of defending champions the US after splitting the six fourball matches on a trying second day in The Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.

In the race to get 17.5 points and win the biennial teams event, the Internationals on Friday shared the fourball 3-3 to trail 7-5 ahead of Saturday's five foursome matches and five fourball contests, and Sunday's 12 deciding singles.

Australian pair Aaron Baddeley and Jason Day condemned Tiger Woods to his second defeat in as many days with a hard-fought one-up win over the former world number one and Dustin Johnson.

Woods put his pair one up with a curling downhill putt at the fourth but they were pulled back at the following hole before Baddeley holed a long birdie putt at the 13th for the Australians to hit the front.

The Australian duo, urged on by a partisan home gallery, held on to their advantage to take the vital point.

It was redemption for Baddeley, who tightened up in a bogey-bogey finish in Thursday's foursomes to finish all square with Bill Haas and Nick Watney.

"Yesterday was very disappointing, even though we still got a halve, but it was great to bounce back today," Baddeley said.

"To win today and to beat Tiger and Dustin, which is a tough pair to beat, it's pretty special."

Woods said it was tough work in the hot blustery conditions on quickening greens.

"The greens just aren't holding and it's just very hard. You have to play the wind on the putts," he said.

Steve Stricker and Matt Kuchar had a convincing four and three win over South Korean Y.E. Yang and Australian Robert Allenby.

The Woods-Stricker combination was broken up by captain Fred Couples after their thumping seven and six defeat to Adam Scott and K.J. Choi in Thursday's opening foursomes.

Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk remained unbeaten in the teams event with a two and one win over Scott and Kim Kyung-Tae.

"This is crazy because when you get wind like this on greens that are 14 plus on the Stimpmeter it's hard to imagine that because you never see it at the local club," Mickelson said.

"This was a case where we were trying to read the wind on the putts, and apparently we did a good job because Jimmy (Furyk) made a bunch of good, solid 4-or-5 footers today."

American rookies Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson had their second win over South African Ernie Els and Japanese youngster Ryo Ishikawa, winning their fourball two and one.

The Internationals finished with the momentum winning the day's last two matches to keep in touch of the Americans.

Australian Geoff Ogilvy and K.J. Choi toiled for almost seven hours before putting away Haas and Watney one up, while South Africans Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel mastered Hunter Mahan and David Toms two and one.

© 2011 AFP/sid