Georgia Elwiss overcame two nasty blows on the hand to hit 96 as The Blaze comfortably beat hosts Surrey by 5 wickets at Beckenham to strengthen their position at the top of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup standings.

The Blaze’s leading scorer in the competition was first injured in the field and then struck on the hand again while batting, but ignored the pain to strike nine fours in her 102-ball stay.

She shared a stand of 113 for the third wicket with Marie Kelly who made 69, as the visitors chased down a target of 253 to win with 10 balls to spare.

Earlier slow left-armer Maria Andrews marked her List-A debut with an impressive 3-40 to restrict Surrey to 252-9. Grace Ballinger backed up Andrews’ efforts with 3-49.

Monaghan and MacDonald-Gay survived the powerplay despite Ballinger and Charley Phillips beating the bat regularly. The batters then cut loose after the tenth over.

At 89-0 in the 17^th over, Surrey looked set for a big score, but Jones struck to remove Monaghan for 49 and MacDonald-Gay (39) was run out by Marie Kelly’s direct throw.

Thereafter, Andrews took charge using beautiful flight and subtle variations to frustrate the batters.

With Lucy Higham wheeling away frugally at the other end, only four boundaries accrued in the next 20 overs, with Alice Davidson-Richards, skipper Kira Chathli and Paige Scholfield all losing the game of patience with Andrews.

A late flurry of runs lifted Surrey over 250.

Tammy Beaumont fell early but Kelly and Knott took toll of some short offerings from Monaghan to get the scoreboard ticking.

Knott majestically lifted one from Kalea Moore straight for six, but the bowler exacted revenge minutes later, holding on to a catch on the fence to give Monaghan the breakthrough.

Elwiss, though, together with Kelly, steadily removed any jeopardy from the chase.

Both batters were quick to punish anything short, the Surrey bowlers offering ample opportunities to do so. Their 50s were each sprinkled with 6 fours, Elwiss’s the quicker of the two in 63 balls.

The 100 partnership soon followed before Kelly departed to a catch at long-on.

Jones didn’t stay long but Elwiss took her side to the brink of victory before falling with the scores level, attempting to hit the boundary, which would have given her a century. Prisha Thanawala struck the winning runs and finished unbeaten on 30.