Shetty, Balgu rule TT auctions

MUMBAI: Maharashtra's No.1 and No. 2 ranked players, Sanil Shetty and Aman Balgu hogged the limelight at the players' auctions of the Iprospect Communicate2 Mumbai Super Table Tennis League held at the Khar Gymkhana on Sunday.
In a unique auction based upon the rankings instead of money which is usually the case among other sports leagues, former national champion Shetty and current state champion Balgu attracted the highest bids of 380 points each.It was far more than their base points of 170 and 160 respectively.
Shetty was snapped up by Kool Smashers while Balgu was picked by the Mumbai Titans.
Junior girl Srushti Haleangadi was another star of the evening. High Tide picked her up for 310 points while her base point was 170. Another of Mumbai's top stars, Ravindra Kotian, earned a good bid by Supreme Fighters with 350 units.
The eight teams will feature in the two-day extravaganza that will witness four teams split into two groups. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semifinals. The Hitachi cosponsored competition is being held under the auspices of the Mumbai City District Table Tennis Association (MCDTTA) and Mumbai Suburban District Table Tennis Association (MSDTTA), and the matches will be played at the Khar Gymkhana on June 20 and 21.
"Each team had a kitty of 1000 points each which they needed to spend on buying the players as per their ranking points," explained Gautam Trehan, one of the organising secretaries.
The teams with players and their buy points:
Kool Smashers: Sanil Shetty (380); Sanjana Choudhary (110); Ashwin S (200); Antara Jaggi (160); Mayursh Shinde (150); Dinkar Selarka.
Mumbai Titans: Aman Balgu (380); Senhora D'Souza (280); Shyam Purohit (110); Vidhi Dhoot (130); Mainak Nistala (140); Kiran Salian.
Supreme Fighters: Ravindra Kotian (350); Dyutki Patki (100); Parthav Kelkar (100); Manushree Patil (250); T K Srikanth (150); Suhas Kulkarni.
Ace: Shubham Ambre (170); Ashlesha Trehan (190); Jignesh Rahatwal (160); Aditi Sinha (180); Jash Modi (190); Prakash Kelkar.
High Tide: Harsh Maniar (130); Mrunmayee Mhatre (120); Mandar Hardikar (240); Srushti Haleangadi (310); Rajveer Shah (160); Yogesh Desai.
Century: Rhys Albuqerque (120); Charvi Kawle (300); Shaurya Pednekar (280); Pranjal Shinde (130); Dhruv Das (160); Kapil Kumar.
Block Busters: Nishant Kulkarni (170); Shweta Parte (250); Rutwik Pandirkar (120); Mansi Chiplunkar (270); Arnav Karnavar (170); Anil Rasam.
King Pong: Omkar Torgalkar (310); Divya Mahajan (230); Mudit Dani (230); Tanvita Thakur (120); Sameehan Kulkarni (110); Deepak Dudhane.