 Trott retained the captaincy when Andrew Stoddart returned to Australia with his English team in 1897 – 98 . Stoddart 's team got away to a good start when they won the First Test in Sydney by nine wickets , K. S. Ranjitsinhji scoring 175 runs . With Joe Darling , Trott devised a plan to curb Ranjitsinhji 's run scoring . An exponent of the leg glance , " Ranji " would take a last look at the field before he took guard . Taking advantage of this fact , after he took strike , the Australians deliberately weakened the off side with two men placed about 10 metres ( 33 ft ) away from him . Bowling a leg side line , the Australians aimed for a catch from a shot played to that side . Darling said of the plan , " As soon as he had his last look and the bowler was at the point of delivering the ball , we shifted positions by a few yards , sometimes one way , sometimes the other . Occasionally , only one would move and sometimes none would move . [ ... ] This eventually put him clean off his game . " The English captain Archie MacLaren agreed saying , " Ranji is in a blue funk " . Regardless of the tactics , Ranji made 457 runs at an average of 50 @.@ 77 for the Test series . 
