Recalled at the last minute when Roger Prideaux withdrew with pleurisy, Basil D'Oliveira made 158 against Australia at the Oval on 23 August 1968 in the fifth Test. England won by 226 runs to draw the series 1-1 and retain the Ashes. The innings would, within weeks, force the MCC selectors into the decision that triggered the D'Oliveira Affair and South Africa's expulsion from international cricket.
D'Oliveira, born in Cape Town in 1931, had qualified for England in 1965 after years in the Lancashire League. The 1968-69 South Africa tour was scheduled regardless of South Africa's apartheid laws, which classified D'Oliveira as 'Coloured'. Vorster had warned MCC privately through 1967 that D'Oliveira would not be welcome.
England had drawn the first Test, lost the second, and the third and fourth had been ruined by rain. The Oval was the last chance to level the series. Prideaux's pleurisy created the vacancy.
D'Oliveira had been dropped earlier in the summer despite scoring 87 in the first Test at Old Trafford. The conventional view inside the MCC was that his place in the tour party for South Africa later in the year — and South African Prime Minister B.J. Vorster's open hostility to a 'Coloured' player visiting — had made the selectors cautious. He was not in the Oval squad until Prideaux fell ill; manager Doug Insole called D'Oliveira at home in Worcester two days before the Test.
England won the toss and batted. D'Oliveira came in at 113 for 4 with John Edrich on 130 and the Australian seamers swinging the ball. He drove Connolly through the covers for his first boundary; from there he played one of the most fluent innings of his career. He reached his hundred in 195 minutes, his 150 in 281, and was finally bowled by Connolly for 158 with England on 451. England declared at 494, then bowled out Australia for 324.
Forced to follow on, Australia rebuilt to 86 for 5 on the final afternoon when a thunderstorm flooded the Oval at 2.20 pm. Captain Colin Cowdrey appealed to the spectators to help mop the outfield with their own towels and newspapers; the ground staff worked with mops and forks. Play resumed at 4.45 pm with 75 minutes left. Derek Underwood took 4 wickets in 27 deliveries on the spongy surface; his last wicket — John Inverarity LBW — fell with six minutes remaining. England won by 226 runs.
D'Oliveira's 158 placed his name back at the top of the South Africa selection list. On 28 August the MCC announced its tour party. He was not in it. Within three weeks Tom Cartwright withdrew injured, D'Oliveira was named as his replacement, and the Vorster government refused to receive the team. The tour was cancelled. The expulsion of South Africa from international cricket followed in 1970.
21 Aug 1968: D'Oliveira recalled when Prideaux withdraws.
22 Aug 1968: Edrich 130; D'Oliveira walks out at 113/4.
23 Aug 1968: D'Oliveira reaches 100 in 195 minutes.
23 Aug 1968: Bowled by Connolly for 158; England declare on 494/9.
27 Aug 1968: Thunderstorm at 2.20 pm; spectators help mop the outfield.
27 Aug 1968: Underwood takes 4/6 in 27 balls; England win by 226.
28 Aug 1968: MCC names tour party; D'Oliveira left out.
21 Aug 1968
Prideaux withdraws with pleurisy; D'Oliveira recalled.
22-23 Aug 1968
D'Oliveira makes 158 in 326 minutes.
27 Aug 1968
England win after thunderstorm; series drawn 1-1.
28 Aug 1968
MCC tour party announced; D'Oliveira omitted.
16 Sep 1968
Cartwright withdraws; D'Oliveira named replacement.
17 Sep 1968
Vorster denounces the selection.
24 Sep 1968
MCC cancels the South Africa tour.
“We are not prepared to receive a team thrust upon us by people whose interests are not in the game but to gain certain political objectives.”
On 16 September Cartwright withdrew; D'Oliveira was named as replacement; Vorster denounced the team as a 'team of the anti-apartheid movement'. The MCC cancelled the tour on 24 September. South Africa would not play another official Test for 22 years.
The Oval 158 was a Test-match innings of the first quality played by a man who knew the political stakes. It made the MCC's original decision to leave him out of the South Africa tour indefensible and triggered the chain of events that ended apartheid-era cricket on the international stage.
The Oval 158 is now read as the cricketing precondition for South Africa's isolation. Every history of apartheid cricket — Peter Oborne's biography of D'Oliveira, the BBC's Dolly documentary — places this innings at the centre of the chain that ended in expulsion.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.