It was too early to call it a must-win game but Cliftonville Academy’s victory over Templepatrick leaves last year’s Section One champions in danger of an immediate demotion from the Premier League.

The Ballyclare-based side are six points adrift at the bottom, not helped by Woodvale’s big win over a Civil Service North side who are desperately struggling for runs.

There was little indication at the Castle Grounds that Templepatrick can close the gap in the remaining five games with their bowling an obvious weak link and their batting relying on four players to score big.

Two of them, professional Sandun Weerakkody and Irish passport holder Charles Swart both hit half-centuries on Saturday but when skipper Ross Bryans is out without scoring and Patrick Tice makes only six, scores of 65 and 78 respectively were never likely to be enough.

It didn’t help that they ran into Cliftonville Academy professional Abhishek Raut on the day he scored his second century of the league season and dominated the run-scoring to such an extent that only 74 of the 218 runs came at the other end.

Raut was 112 not out when the target was reached in the 40th over with the rest coming in extras, including an embarrassing 28 wides.

It was only Cliftonville Academy’s third win of the season – the others also against their bottom four rivals in the pre-split games and with no other sides to face they will be confident of adding to that total and even maintain their current seventh place, which they currently hold with a superior run-rate.

With Francis Collins missing, captain Matty McCord promoted himself to open the batting. It was not a good idea as he failed to last the fourth over, and with Hayden Melly already back in the pavilion and John Glass to follow shortly afterwards, the home side found themselves 34 for three.

But every cloud has a silver lining and that allowed Raut in at the start of the seventh over and he turned what appeared a tricky chase into a formality. Such was his preeminence that even the normally free-scoring Jared Wilson contributed only 33 runs to the fifth wicket stand of 106 and he scored all but 10 of the last 39 with Adam Kelso who became the fourth Cliftonville Academy batter to finish with 10 to his name. In all, Raut faced 110 balls and hit 13 fours and a six

Templepatrick’s only league win of the season was in the first game between these teams at The Cloughan when the bowlers dismissed their visitors for 130 in a 36-over game, one of two occasions when they have bowled out the opposition. Both times they bowled first.

McCord won the toss on Saturday and ensured his side would be bowling first this time. It was his best decision as the second wicket stand of 41 between Weerakkody and Ewan Wilson proved to be Templepatrick’s highest stand with not one surviving 10 overs.

The Sri Lankan professional brought up his 50 in only the 13th over, from 41 balls with eight fours and a six having been given a life on 28, but he was starved of the strike in the next eight overs, facing only 17 balls and that proved his downfall as he was caught at long-on, off Raut, trying to break free.

Not only did professional get professional but captain trapped captain with McCord given out leg before wicket to Bryans and there was no doubt about the most disappointed batter with Tice making his feelings loud and clear after driving Raut low to cover, where Varun Chopra held a fine low catch.

After his departure in the 27th over, which left Templepatrick 128 for five, Swart had to be more patient and took 58 balls to bring up a chanceless half-century with just five fours, although Luke Jenkins, on his Premier League debut, made an impressive 20 off just 26 balls.

Swart couldn’t quite make it through the 50 overs, last man out in the 45th, a return catch to give Raut his fourth wicket.

Moving forward, Templepatrick will hope that Tice will make a quick recovery after a suspected dislocated finger that forced him to give up the gloves after six overs. His batting would certainly be missed in what is now a tough battle to avoid the drop.