The Sunday Mail
ZIMBABWE needed five runs from 12 balls and charging in from round the wicket was Mitchell Starc to Chevrons number nine batsman Prosper Utseya.
Many could have wished it was the non-striking batsman, Elton Chigumbura, facing that ball, but a few seconds later it did not matter.
Utseya clobbered Starc for a huge six that flew to the embankment area igniting massive celebrations at a packed Harare Sports Club.
The mighty Australia had fallen, by 3 wickets, in a historic moment that will forever be cherished as one of the highs of Zimbabwean cricket.
Tomorrow marks exactly a year since that historic afternoon for the man who hit the winning runs “it is the most memorable six.”
Not only because it made history, but because Utseya also thought it would be his last international match.
In his 11-year cricket career span that produced 164 ODI caps, Utseya had never experienced the roller-coaster of emotions that gripped him in August 2014.
First, he was struck by Chicken Pox soon after the Afghanistan series, but recovered to feature in the South Africa series. In the third ODI of that series, his bowling action was deemed suspect.
He went for tests, failed and was resultantly banned from bowling his off- spin in October. That off-spin had earned him the Mr Dots nickname, just as much as it also made him the highest wicket-taker at Harare Sports Club with 52 scalps from 60 matches.
It was gone.
“That period was tough, I went through a lot of things in a short space of time, career threatening stuff,” Utseya said during an interview with The Sunday Mail last week.
“When I first received the news that my action was suspect I remember walking from Queens( Sports Club) to Rainbow Hotel, I did not travel with the team bus, it was soul searching I wanted to see if I could find a solution. I got a lot of counseling from family, friends and ZC to a point I felt I could come back and still play the game.
“I managed to and I thank God,” said the 30-year-old who made true of the statement that “in times of helplessness one suddenly believes in God.”
“I never used to go to church. . .but God put me in that situation for me to realize how important he is to our lives.
“I now go to Johanne Masowe,” said Zimbabwe’s seventh most capped player who was later cleared to bowl in December.
The suspect action had taken a historic hat-trick against South Africa in a tri-series match at Harare Sports Club.
“Everything just clicked. In cricket you get to a stage where you reach your peak performance, where you reap the rewards of the hard work.
“I know these conditions better than most because of spending some time with the grounds men and wanting to learn on how wickets are prepared,” he said.
With a new action, Utseya was included in the World Cup squad and not everyone liked that.
“I would do some extra target bowling at Alex Park alone. . .in the process of working on that I realized I could control the slow medium and bowl some cutters. I was actually surprised that people were taken aback by my inclusion in the World Cup squad.
“After my ban, I played against Canada which was my only series before the World Cup, I emerged the best bowler for both teams and had the best bowling average for both teams as well.
“I was surprised that after performing better than those players with proper actions, people were shocked by my inclusion. I think there were some individuals with personal agendas against me and they were not looking at statistics,” said Utseya who has 133 ODI wickets, second to Heath Streak (237) on Zimbabwe’s all time wicket takers list.
Amongst the active players, he possesses the best economy rate of 4.36, above him are only Bryan Strang (4.13) and Ray Price (3.99).
Chirandu, as Utseya is called by his team mates, says he feels less celebrated.
“I don’t think it’s only me, but I think a lot of cricketers don’t get the appreciation that they deserve. If you look at other test playing nations, they are more appreciated for what they have contributed; here people rarely appreciate each other.”
He still feels the pressure of getting chopped from the team despite making significant progress with his new bowling action.
In 2015 he has taken three wickets from four innings with an average economy rate of 5.21 and best bowling figures of 2/63 versus Pakistan in Lahore.
“Every time I am playing I feel like it’s my last one, it’s a challenge.
“Pressure is there because you want to cement your place and you want to win, you want to contribute to the success of the team.
“That’s sport; you can’t run away from pressure. Good players perform well under pressure and they don’t go for long without performing. The selectors are also under pressure to select the best side because they want to win as well,” said Utseya.
“Chirandu” is Zimbabwe’s highest wicket taker in T20s with 25 wickets from 33 matches at an economy rate of 6.78.
Retirement is not yet on his mind, but has challenged fellow senior players to “step up”.
“If we step up the rest will fall in order,” said the father of a two-year-old son Ricardo Quinton.
“I still see myself contributing to the team, I still think I have got four or five years left in me. I want my experience to help Zimbabwe qualify to the next World Cup as a way of giving back to ZC for what they have invested in us.
“I wouldn’t want to talk about it now; I am still focusing on playing.
“Ideally I would want something to fall back on…it’s a process,” said the player who says he is good friends with India’s Rohit Sharma and South Africa’s JP Duminy.
