Terming Aravinda De Silva's dismissal as the turning point of the match, Akram said: ``He is definitely one of the best batsmen in the world. With his departure we were relieved,'' he said.

But the Pakistan captain refused to comment on his own dismissal. He was ruled run out by umpire Dr SC Gupta, without referring the appeal to the third umpire. The decision looked doubtful in television replays. ``My job is to play cricket,'' he said.

Talking about the World Cup, Akram said: ``Our batting has got be strengthened, mentally, if we are to win the World Cup. Bowling is our strength, that is why opted to bat first today,'' he added.

Opening batsman Saeed Anwar, after his sparkling innings in the morning, pulled a leg muscle and had to go off the field. ``It isnothing serious. he will be okay for the next match,'' Akram said.

Ranatunga blames it on dropped catches: Arjuna Ranatunga blamed the dropped catches (Anwar and Shahid Afridi were dropped early in the innings) and the injury to Atapattu for their defeat. ``Apart from the dropped catches we gave away 25-30 runs. Atapattu returning to the pavilion when we were getting runs easily affected our concentration and put us down,'' he said.