``Pakistan jeetega (Pakistan will win),'' came the call from one side of the aisle. ``India jeetega,'' responded the other side in the darkened theatre filled to capacity with cricket fans to watch last week's World Cup match between India and Pakistan, which India won by 47 runs.

Devoted Indian and Pakistani cricket fans in New York called in sick, took long lunches or skipped school to watch the two old foes square off. ``Being half-facetious, we call this the jehad-the holy war,'' said Ravi Bhagavan, 30, a native of Bangalore who works as an investment banker in Manhattan. Bhagavan said he took a ``long lunch'' to watch the match along with colleagues at an Indian restaurant in Manhattan.

One of those colleagues, Sam Kumar, 26, showed up at 5.30 am to get a good seat in front of the restaurant's large-screen television. ``I left to go backto work and follow it on the Internet,'' Kumar said. ``We were all following it at work and then we just said let's go.''

Some parents considered the match so important that they let their children skip school to watch it. Ravinder Singh, 16, a high school student, said his parents allowed him to miss school when they learnt where he was headed at 4.45 in the morning. They said ``go, go,'' Singh said.

While India's fans ended the day boastful, Pakistani supporters were left to wonder about what could have been. ``We don't care about the World Cup,'' said Hafiz Tasawar, 49, a taxi driver. ``We just want to beat India.''Most fans said the political disputes between India and Pakistan were not foremost in their minds as they watched. ``It's a match. It's not politics,'' Harjeet Singh Sodhi, 30, an India supporter said as he watched the match at the Eagle Theatre. ``You can't compare the two.''

But politics always seemed to weave itself-however insidiously -- into the comments of many of the onlookers.``We don't hate Indians,'' said Niaz Rana, 32, a native of Pakistan, who watched the match at the Eagle Theatre. But in light of the history of armed conflict between the two nations, when it comes to cricket, ``we don't want to lose'' to India, he added.

Rana was part of a rowdy bunch of Pakistan supporters at the Eagle who had to be admonished by security guards to not run up and down the aisles waving their flags. Police reported no incidents connected to the match, although one guard at the Eagle said there was a small, brief skirmish outside the theatre afterwards. At a Manhattan restaurant popular among taxi drivers from Bangladesh, many said they rooted for India because of the bitter history between Pakistan and Bangladesh. ``We want Pakistan to lose,'' said Russel Belal, 30, a taxi driver. Other Bangladeshi fans, however, said they rooted for Pakistan to make their country's defeat of Pakistan in an earlier round of play that much more impressive.

Although thousands of people flocked to SouthAsian-owned establishments, that did not mean the match was a financial boon for them. One restaurant owner, Zeshan Hamid of Shaheen Sweets and Restaurant in Manhattan, said he had yet to break even after buying the cable package of World Cup matches for $4,000. He cleared his dining area of tables to provide seating for the 150 who showed up. But the publicity of having a few hundred people come to his restaurant to watch the match would pay off down the road, he said. ``If you come here to watch cricket, you come here to eat,'' he said.