PERTH - Newly retired Ricky Ponting says while India's Sachin Tendulkar was the best batsman he played against, West Indian Brian Lara was the opponent he feared most. "I felt Sachin was the best player I played against. But I probably lost more sleep on the eve of games against Lara, because I knew that he could single-handedly win games for his team and Lara could certainly do that and probably did it more than what Sachin did for India."