He was an all-rounder who went onto score 2,696 first-class cricket runs at 28.68 and went onto take 276 wickets at 24.11 with his crafty leg-spin bowling.

He played a pivotal role in South Africa's historic first ever test win in English soil.

The second Test at Cape Town proved only slightly better: South Africa recorded an innings victory, but Balaskas made a duck and took 2–104 in the match; he was dropped for the rest of the series.

[4] His record match winning spell of 9/103 propelled South Africa to register a convincing victory over England by a huge margin of 157 runs.

He resumed his domestic cricket career after the war, and enjoyed a fine 1945/46 season when he took 47 wickets at 15.95, but after a couple of matches the following year he hung up his bat for good.