When you look at the doc : http://jqueryui.com/sortable/#items
The option 'items' allow you to choose which elements are selected.
The problem is that during 'start' method, you can't modify the options and affect them in real time.
So you can create the element 'mousedown' event, and it will change the options just before dragging.
Look at the fiddle : http://jsfiddle.net/4mcpq/61/
The code with interrest is :
$('.ui-state-default').on('mousedown', function(){
var cellValue = $(this).children().first().html();
$('#sortable tbody').sortable('option', 'items', "tr:has(td:contains('"+cellValue+"')) ");
});
UPDATE AFTER COMMENT :
fiddle : http://jsfiddle.net/4mcpq/64/
update : function(event, ui) {
var myvalue = ui.item[0].children[0].outerText;
var index = $(this).children('tr:has(td:contains('+myvalue+'))').length;
for(var i=index; i > 0; i--){
$('#sortable tr:has(td:first:contains('+myvalue+'))').eq(i-1).find('td').last().html(i - 1);
}
},