Full Name

Prosper Utseya

Born

March 26, 1985, Harare

Age

38y 359d

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Offbreak

Playing Role

Bowler

An offspinner who has always been economical without being incisive, Prosper Utseya was first introduced to the game at Chipembere Primary School in the Harare township of Highfield, and won a ZCU scholarship to Churchill High School. A promising talent at school level, he made his first-class debut - opening the batting in the first innings - for Mashonaland A at the age of 15. In 2004, Utseya was unexpectedly thrust into the Zimbabwe national team against Sri Lanka at the age of 19 when the rebel players withdrew. He held onto a place in a weakened national side and, somewhat surprisingly, took up the captaincy from Terry Duffin in 2006.

Utseya came of age with the ball during the tour to West Indies in May 2006, where his flight and spin belied his lack of experience and years. But there weren't a great deal of happy memories for Zimbabwe in the years that followed and Utseya tendered his resignation as national captain after the side's disappointing performance at the World Twenty20 in May 2010, saying that he was stepping down in the interest of the team's future development.

As it turned out, the move also allowed Utseya to focus on his own development. He formed a useful spin-bowling partnership with Ray Price, the pair making an odd, yet effective, couple and even opening the bowling together when conditions warranted it. Utseya honed his game as a limited-overs cricketer, his parsimonious bowling combining with surprisingly agile fielding and a can-do batting attitude to make him an automatic pick for Zimbabwe in ODIs and a senior member of the squad. He became the second Zimbabwean to take an ODI hat-trick in the course of his 5 for 36 against South Africa in August 2014, and later in the same series sealed his place in Zimbabwean cricketing folklore when he hit Mitchell Starc for a towering six to take Zimbabwe to their first ODI victory over Australia in 31 years.

His career hit a major hurdle shortly afterwards, when his action was deemed illegal and he was barred from bowling the offspin that had made him Zimbabwe's most reliable one-day bowler. Utseya was forced to take drastic action, trimming an already minimal bowling action down to its absolute bare bones and remodeling himself as a bowler of slow-medium cutters.
Liam Brickhill

Prosper Utseya Career Stats

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Tests46753410103/605/19241.003.2675.3000
ODIs164160857162391335/365/3646.904.3664.4210
T20Is3535749858263/253/2533.006.8728.8000
FC82-1428465092177/56-29.992.7365.8882
List A243-1222086832145/365/3640.574.2657.1410
T20s848418181984754/124/1226.456.5424.2100

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100s50s4s6sCtSt
Tests4811074515.2822946.720012120
ODIs16413248140668*16.73241058.34048817500
T20Is352199413*7.8311581.73006160
FC8213792756115*21.53651542.30115--330
List A24319360209268*15.72--05--770
T20s84552436741*11.8342087.3800219240
Prosper Utseya

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Photos of Prosper Utseya

Liam Roche receives his maiden ODI cap from Prosper Utseya
Graeme Creamer and his team-mates celebrate a wicket
Prosper Utseya, Tendai Chatara and Sean Williams go off the field
Prosper Utseya looks on with the Zimbabwe flag in the background
Prosper Utseya, Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor with the World Cup trophy at Victoria falls
Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor with the World Cup trophy