 Basil d'Oliveira was the best of the strokemakers, making 369 runs (36.90) in the series with a century at Melbourne.He was a brilliant Cape-Coloured batsman who qualified for England by residence in his mid-thirties, an unflappable player with a low backlift and powerful arms whose gentle, smiling face concealed a very determined man.His match-winning 158 against Australia at the Oval in 1968 led to his selection for the 1968-69 tour of South Africa and a cricketing crisis.