in a season, and made eight centuries. He was less successful against the Australians after the first Test, possibly through over-anxiety to replicate his form for Sussex. He was dismissed for low scores in the second and third games, but was slightly more successful with 21 and 49 not out in the fourth and he hit 54 in the final match. In a low-scoring series, Ranjitsinhji scored 278 runs at 46.33, the second highest average for England. In June 1899, Ranjitsinhji was appointed Sussex captain after Murdoch retired, ahead of other amateur cricketers. George Brann captained the county's first match after Murdoch stood down but he may have found the position to be too difficult, and Ranjitsinhji led the team for the remainder of the season. The press regarded his first season as a success as a late sequence of matches without defeat took Sussex to fifth in the County Championship, the highest position achieved by the team to that point. As captain, Ranjitsinhji took great care over details such as weather conditions, but some of his innovations, such as the frequent changing of the person bowling or implementing fielding practice, were unpopular with the players. He took the opportunity of leading the side to increase the amount of bowling he did, taking 31 wickets in the season. But the team's lack of effective bowlers was a problem before Ranjitsinhji took over. Ranjitsinhji continued to score heavily throughout the 1900 season. After a slow start in cold weather, in the space of nine days, he hit scores of 97, 127, 222 and 215 not out, followed by 192 a week later. After a brief sequence of low scores, he scored 1,000 runs in July and maintained his form until the end of the season; in his final 19 innings, he failed to reach 40 only three times. He was successful in a variety of conditions and match situations, and after some criticism of his ability to play on difficult pitches for batting, scored 89 against Somerset and 202 against Middlesex on rain affected pitches. Against Leicestershire, he achieved his highest score until then, making 275 in five hours. He hit a record-breaking fifth double-hundred of the season in his penultimate game; this was his eleventh century of the season, which was also briefly a record. Ranjitsinhji's final aggregate was 3,065 runs, the second highest total after that which he scored