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NEW DELHI (AP) — India will be chasing a thirdTwenty20 World Cuptitle when the 2026 edition, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, gets underway Saturday.

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The defending champion India squadwill be in action on opening day, taking on the U.S. team at Mumbai. Sri Lanka will play its first game against Ireland in Colombo on Sunday.

The tournament will feature 20 teams divided into four groups of five. The group stage will run until Feb. 20. The playoffs will start with the Super Eights stage from Feb. 21-March 1, followed by semifinals on March 4 and 5 and the championship decider on March 8.

No host nation has ever won the men's T20 World Cup, nor has any team lifted the trophy three times (West Indies and England are also two-time champions) — India is aiming to change history on both counts. Here's what to know:

India's title defense

India won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 in South Africa and then had to wait another 17 years to lift the trophy again. That drought ended in 2024, when Rohit Sharma led his squad to victory over the Proteas in the final at Barbados.

India's longtime stars Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja retired from the T20 format in international cricket following that victory. Now, under Suryakumar Yadav, the defending champions are chasing a repeat performance on home soil.

India has won every T20 series it has contested in the last two years, including victories against South Africa and Australia away from home, as well as theAsia Cuplast year in the United Arab Emirates.

India is placed in Group A with the United States, Namibia, Netherlands and archrival Pakistan. There's been adoubt over the high profile India-Pakistan contest– a fixture highlight in International Cricket Council tournaments – which is scheduled for Feb. 15 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The Pakistan government has refused permission for its national team to play against India in response to the ICC's refusal to accommodateBangladesh's request for venue changes. The result wasScotland replacing Bangladesh in the tournament.

There's a lengthy history of political tension overshadowing high profile cricket between the neighboring countries.

If Pakistan forfeits the game, it gives India a relatively trouble-free pathway to the playoff stage.

Sri Lanka's home advantage

Since the 2024 T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka has played 32 T20s and lost about half of them. Even on home soil, it has only beaten West Indies and alsolost to England in the build-upto this tournament.

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Yet there's history of Sri Lanka lifting for the big limited-overs tournaments and, for starters, it helps to be playing all games in familiar conditions either at Colombo or Pallekele.

The 2014 champions are placed in Group B with Ireland, Oman, Zimbabwe and 2021 champions Australia.

Getting out of this group is the first objective, but the real challenge will begin afterward. In the second round, Sri Lanka could face Pakistan, New Zealand and England — it has won only five of 16 games against these three teams since 2024.

Sri Lanka will count on spinners Wanindu Hasranga and Maheesh Theekshana to bolster its chances, with Matheesha Pathirana leading the pace attack. Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis will have to carry much of the batting load.

Between 2009 and 2014, Sri Lanka reached three T20 World Cup finals, finally winning the title in the last of those with a victory over India in Dhaka. It was the final T20 game for star players Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena, and Sri Lanka is yet to scale similar lofty heights again.

The Favorites

Ranked No. 1 in the ICC T20 rankings, India is the obvious favorite for the title.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir may not have had much success recently in the test or one-day international formats, but his T20 plans have mostly all worked out well.

Abhishek Sharma has become a fan favorite in the absence of Sharma and Kohli. The big-hitting opener is already filling stadiums as fans line up to watch his skills. The No. 1-ranked T20 batter will be key to India's ambitions for the title.

"He's a star. He can be the leading run-scorer and potentially player of the tournament," analyst and former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said on the ICC Review podcast.

"If he does, that makes India even harder to beat. If he doesn't, they are as vulnerable as anybody else."

Skipper Yadav also regained form in the recent series against New Zealand, while Ishan Kishan has provided fresh impetus to the batting at No. 3. In the bowling department, Harshit Rana is a shoe-in with his all-round skills, while mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy – also the No. 1-ranked T20 bowler – will be hard to handle on home pitches.

T20 veterans Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya – who both played crucial roles in India's grand final win at Barbados – will once again play important roles for India. Potentially, it could be Bumrah's last T20 World Cup.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Collin Gillespie scored a career-high 30 points, Mark Williams had 24 points and 12 rebounds, and the Phoenix Suns bounced back from a slow start for a 130-125 win over the reeling Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night.

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Grayson Allen also scored 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting and Jordan Goodwin had 16 points and 10 rebounds on a night when the Suns played without leading scorer Devin Booker (25.4 points per game), who was out with a right ankle sprain. Jalen Green was also out of the Suns' lineup.

Gillespie tied a career high with eight made 3-pointers and also had 10 assists.

Jerami Grant had 23 points to lead Portland, which lost its sixth straight game. Donovan Clingan had 14 points and 15 rebounds. Shaedon Sharpe added 19 points for Portland.

The Trail Blazers also played without their leading scorer and second-leading rebounder, Deni Avdija (25.5 points per game), who has a lower back strain and was just named to his first All-Star game.

Vit Krejci had five points in his Portland debut after being acquired in a trade with Atlanta.

Portland jumped to a 41-30 lead after one quarter but Phoenix pulled within 72-67 at halftime. The Suns took control by outscoring the Blazers 34-22 in the third quarter.

Williams' layup with 3:55 left in the third quarter put the Suns ahead for good at 88-87.

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The Trail Blazers turned the ball over 17 times, six more times than the Suns.

Suns: Return home to play Golden State on Thursday night.

Trail Blazers: Host Memphis on Friday night.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided byData Skriveand data fromSportradar.

NEW DELHI (AP) — The Twenty20 World Cup gets underway in India and Sri Lanka on Saturday. The smash-and-bash nature of this cricket format makes it very likely to unearth a few stars of the future.

Here are five names to watch out for:

Abhishek Sharma, India

The opening batter is already setting T20 alight with his powerful hitting from ball one. Sharma has the highest strike-rate in T20s – 194.74 – and is currently the No. 1-ranked T20 batter in the world.

Despite only playing cricket's shortest, sharpest format at international level,Sharma has quickly climbed the ladder for India. In 38 matches, he averages 37.05 and has already hit two hundreds and eight half-centuries – that's a 50-plus score once every four times he goes to the crease. It sends a very clear warning to the opposition bowlers.

Sharma was player of the tournament in the 2025 Asia Cup – where he finished with a strike-rate of 200 and three successive half-centuries. It was his first taste of a multi-team tournament, beyond the Indian Premier League (IPL).

He first hit headlines matching Australia's Travis Head stroke-for-stroke in the 2024 season, and has already climbed up the charts – fans line up to watch him bat. Undoubtedly, he holds the key to India's ambition of defending its 2024 title.

Jacob Bethell, England

The 22-year-old allrounder got a taste of the fan experience during his time with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League last year. He played only two matches, but scored 55 off 33 balls on debut against Southern rivals Chennai Super Kings. Bengaluru won the game by two runs and Bethell has a big fan following in India now.

He proved his worth in the test arena with 154 against Australia in the Ashes series finale in Sydney – an innings that tied him to England's short-term future across formats.

Bethellis suited to Indian conditions, owing to his attacking stroke play against spin and his ability to bowl decent left-arm spin. In England's last match before the World Cup, he picked up 4-11 in 3.3 overs against Sri Lanka.

Dewald Brevis, South Africa

A quintessential franchise product,Breviswas signed by Mumbai Indians immediately after the 2022 Under-19 World Cup after he led the scoring for the Proteas. However, it wasn't an IPL only deal.

Brevis was embedded within the MI ecosystem and went on to feature for the franchise across the world, gaining valuable experience. Later, he also became part of the MI Cape Town (SA20) and MI New York (MLC) franchises. In October 2022, at age 19, Brevis scored the highest T20 score in South Africa – 162 off 57 balls – and was nicknamed 'Baby AB' after ex-Proteas star AB de Villiers.

All of it proved too much for Brevis, though, and his development was stunted. So much so, MI dropped him from the IPL squad ahead of the 2025 auction. He returned to South Africa's domestic cricket scene, focused on the basics of scoring runs and fought his way back to prominence.

Chennai Super Kings took a gamble on him during the 2025 IPL as an injury replacement. He hit 57 off 23 balls, including five sixes, against Gujarat Titans and was player of the match. It cemented his spot in the Chennai squad for the near future, and cricket fans await his return to action at this T20 World Cup.

Noor Ahmad, Afghanistan

Following in the footsteps of compatriot Rashid Khan, the left-arm wrist spinner is already in high demand across T20 leagues. Along with representing Afghanistanat the international level, he has also featured in T20 leagues in India, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, the U.S., Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia, England and the West Indies – all before his turning 22.

With nearly 200 T20s behind him, Ahmad will be a handful in spin-friendly conditions both in India and Sri Lanka. His exposure to batters across the world can also be a handicap, but the left-arm angle and his mystery wrist spin is often difficult to read.

For this reason, Chennai Super Kings had paid around US$1.2 million to secure his services. Small evidence to his growing stature is the fact that Ahmad has out-bowled even Rashid Khan in the IPL for the past two seasons – he picked 32 wickets to Khan's 17. Together, the duo is certain to cause trouble for Afghanistan's opponents at this T20 World Cup.

Finn Allen, New Zealand

At the start of his career, Allen struggled with consistency. It is tough for an explosive batter in the T20 arena. With time, though, he has got on top of this aspect. It resulted in the third-highest tally ofsixes in a T20 international innings– 16 against Pakistan in 2024 — as Allen scored 137 off 62 balls.

That knock re-calibrated Allen's career – he has since gone on to feature in various T20 leagues across the world. Most recently, he amassed 466 runs for Perth Scorchers in Australia's Big Bash League at strike-rate 184 and powered them to a record sixth title.

Days later, he landed in India and played in the fifth T20 for New Zealand, smashing 80 off 36 balls with six sixes. New Zealand lost that game but Allen set his path straight for the upcoming world tournament. For the Black Caps to win a first T20 title, Allen's hitting prowess will be key.

AP cricket:https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Penny the Doberman Pinscher was named Best in Show at the 2026Westminster Kennel Club Dog Showon Tuesday.

The competition as stiff, and as the seven finalists took one last lap around the arena, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

The New York crowd seemed to reserve their loudest cheers for the four-year-old Doberman Pinscher, and in the end, she prevailed and became the 42nd female to win the prestigious Best in Show award. It marked the fifth time a Doberman has taken the top prize at Westminster.

Emerging from the Working group, Penny beat out2,499 other caninesspread across seven different groups containing 204 total breeds to win the coveted prize.

"She is as great a Doberman as I've ever seen," said Penny's handler Andy Linton, who was also the handler of the last Doberman Pinscher to win Best in Show at Westminster 37 years ago in 1989.

The 150th edition of the America's oldest continuously-held dog show (andsecond-oldest sporting eventin the country behind the Kentucky Derby) was once again staged in New York City at famed Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.

The Best in Show winner is chosen by a single judge. This year's judge, David Fitzpatrick, had to decide between the winners of the respective seven varying groups – Herding, Hound, Non-Sporting, Sporting, Terrier, Toy and Working.

Fitzpatrick awarded Reserve Best in Show to Cota the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, winner of the Sporting group.

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"You know they often say 'what a great lineup,'" Fitzpatrick said of the finalists. "But this is one that will go down in history."

The remaining group winners were:

Herding group:Graham the Old English Sheepdog

Hound group:Zaida the Afghan Hound

Non-sporting group:JJ (short for Jingle Juice) the Lhasa Apso

Terrier group:Wager the Smooth Fox Terrier

Toy group:Cookie the Maltese

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By Michael Georgy

Feb 3 (Reuters) - Libya's Saif al-Islam Gaddafi went from his notorious father's heir apparent to a decade of captivity and obscurity in a remote hill town before launching a presidential bid that helped derail an attempted election.

Saif al-Islam's office said in a statement on Tuesday that he had been killed during a "direct confrontation" with four unknown gunmen who broke into his home.

The office of Libya's attorney general ​said investigators and forensic doctors examined Saif al-Islam's body and determined that he died from gunshot wounds and that the office was working to identify suspects.

Despite holding no official position, Saif al-Islam, 53, was once seen as the ‌most powerful figure in the oil-rich North African country after his father Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled for more than four decades.

Saif al-Islam shaped policy and mediated high-profile, sensitive diplomatic missions.

He led talks on Libya abandoning its weapons of mass destruction and negotiated compensation for the families of those killed in the ‌bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

Determined to rid Libya of its pariah status, he engaged with the West and championed himself as a reformer, calling for a constitution and respect for human rights.

Educated at the London School of Economics and a fluent English speaker, he was once seen by many governments as the acceptable, Western-friendly face of Libya.

But when a rebellion broke out against Gaddafi's long rule in 2011, Saif al-Islam immediately chose family and clan loyalties over his many friendships to become an architect of a brutal crackdown on rebels, whom he called rats.

Speaking to Reuters at the time of the revolt, he said: "We fight here in Libya, we die here in Libya."

He warned that rivers of blood would flow and the government would fight to the last ⁠man and woman and bullet.

"All of Libya will be destroyed. We will need 40 years ‌to reach an agreement on how to run the country, because today, everyone will want to be president, or emir, and everybody will want to run the country," he said, wagging his finger at the camera in a TV broadcast.

'I'M STAYING HERE'

After rebels took over the capital Tripoli, Saif al-Islam tried to flee to neighbouring Niger dressed as a Bedouin tribesman.

The Abu Bakr Sadik Brigade ‍militia captured him on a desert road and flew him to the western town of Zintan about one month after his father was hunted down and summarily shot dead by rebels.

"I'm staying here. They'll empty their guns into me the second I go out there," he said in comments captured in an audio recording as hundreds of men thronged round an old Libyan air force transport plane.

Saif al-Islam was betrayed to his rebel captors by a Libyan nomad.

He spent the next six years detained in Zintan, a far cry from the charmed life he ​lived under Gaddafi when he had pet tigers, hunted with falcons and mingled with British high society on trips to London.

Human Rights Watch met him in Zintan. Hanan Salah, its Libya director, told Reuters at that time that he did ‌not allege ill treatment. "We did raise concerns about Gaddafi being held in solitary confinement for most if not all of the time that he had been detained," she said.

Saif al-Islam was missing a tooth and said he had been isolated from the world and that he did not receive visitors.

He was, however, granted access to a television with satellite channels and some books, she added.

In 2015, Saif al-Islam was sentenced to death by firing squad by a court in Tripoli for war crimes.

He was also wanted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague, which issued an arrest warrant against him for "murder and persecution".

'YOU NEED TO COME BACK SLOWLY'

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi spent years underground in Zintan to avoid assassination after he was released by the militia in 2017 under an amnesty law. From 2016, he was allowed to contact people inside and outside Libya, said Mustafa Fetouri, a Libyan analyst with contacts in Saif al-Islam's inner circle.

Saif al-Islam received visitors almost every week and debated politics and the state of ⁠the country. Sometimes he received gifts and books.

Wearing a traditional Libyan robe and turban, he appeared in the southern city of Sabha in ​2021 to file his candidacy for the presidential elections.

He had been expected to play on nostalgia for Libya's relative stability before the 2011 NATO-backed uprising ​that toppled his father and ushered in years of chaos and violence.

However, his candidacy was controversial and opposed by many of those who had suffered at the hands of his father's rule. Powerful armed groups that emerged from the rebel factions that rose up in 2011 rejected it outright.

As the election process ground on in late 2021 with no real agreement on the rules, Saif al-Islam's candidacy ‍became one of the main points of contention.

He was disqualified because ⁠of his 2015 conviction, but when he tried to appeal the ruling, fighters blocked off the court. The ensuing arguments contributed to the collapse of the election process and Libya's return to political stalemate.

In an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 2021, Saif al-Islam discussed his political strategy. "I've been away from the Libyan people for 10 years," he said. "You need to come back slowly, slowly. Like a striptease. You need to play with their ⁠minds a little."

"After Saif al-Islam was freed a few years ago, he proved incapable of delivering speeches or producing public statements through the press or social media," said Jalel Harchaoui, a contributor to Britain's Royal United Services Institute think tank. "Yet his symbolic significance remained substantial. This symbolic stature constituted one ‌of the main factors preventing the 2021 elections from proceeding."

"Now that he has been slain, most pro-Gaddafi factions will experience both diminished morale and anger. At the same time, one obstacle to holding elections in ‌Libya has been removed," Harchaoui said.

(Reporting by Michael Georgy, Hani Amara and Ayman al-Warfalli; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Olivier Holmey)