In early August, D'Oliveira returned to form with an innings of 89 against Warwickshire.Oborne, p. 163. Before the fifth and final England–Australia Test match, played between 22 and 27 August, Cowdrey batted at the Oval, where the match was to be played, and deduced that medium-paced bowlers would be very effective given the condition of the cricket pitch. Consequently, when the England team was chosen, he asked for a medium-paced bowler to be placed in reserve in case conditions warranted their selection. The two first-choice selections, Knight and Tom Cartwright, were unavailable, so D'Oliveira was called up by Cowdrey as a reserve on account of his bowling. On the day before the game, one of the England batsmen, Roger Prideaux, withdrew from the team, saying he had an infection. The team was duly re-arranged and the new version included D'Oliveira as a batsman. He heard no more from Oosthuizen, who was transferred from the London office soon after.Oborne, pp. 179–80. The intervention of Oosthuizen became public knowledge when it was reported in the press in April 1969.Williams, p. 58.
