Always economical without being incisive, 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. He was consistently able to stem the flow of runs in the middle overs, and he provided two of the series highlights - one when he comprehensively beat Brian Lara with successive deliveries in the first match in Trinidad, and the other his remarkable diving, juggling boundary catch in the second.
He has a reputation for being an extremely parsimonious bowler, albeit with less wicket taking prowess. In a Cricinfo article from August 2006, he had the lowest economy rate (3.84) amongst all spinners in the history of ODI cricket. In comparison, the economy rates for Muttiah Muralitharan and Harbhajan Singh at the same time were 3.85 and 4.11 respectively.
