ODI CricSim The Web's best flash cricket simulator

27 MAR 12: Today the flash cricket simulator takes a closer look at New Zealand's most successful captain, the stylish and elegant top-order batsman Stephen Fleming. The tall Cantabrian played 280 ODIs and batted 269 times for 8037 runs at an average of 32.40 and a strike rate of 71.49, but his most famous stat was his awful conversion rate. He passed 50 no fewer than 57 times in his ODI career, and on only eight of those occasions did he cross the three figures. This equates to a 14% chance of making a hundred given that he scored at least 50 runs.

17 MAR 12: Next to run the gauntlet in the flash cricket simulator's attempt to find the world's greatest allrounder is Shahid Afridi. We have seen so far that batting strike rate is a crucial variable in determining who wins these matchups, and Afridi comes in with by far the highest strike rate of any of the allrounders in this simulation.

21 MAR 12: It has taken a while because of a sudden need to travel and a loss of Internet connectivity, but the sister site to the flash cricket simulator - Test CricSim - is now live and playable!

The beta in the title refers to the fact that not all the players are added yet. Test CricSim includes almost all of the players from ODI CricSim and all of the teams, including a World XI. To be added are a number of old-time players, especially from England and Australia, such as Sir Jack Hobbs, W.G. Grace, Keith Miller etc.

25 FEB 12: The flash cricket simulator ran 1,000 matches between South Africa and New Zealand overnight, and it looks as though the Proteas will be too strong for the Black Caps, despite the latter's recent good form. Of the 1,000 matches, South Africa won 691 and the Black Caps 309, which suggests the ODI series should be won 2-1 by the visitors, with an outside chance of a 3-0 greenwash.

23 FEB 12: Soon the search for the world's greatest allrounder will come to a close, and that leaves the flash cricket simulator in need of a new project. What I have decided to do it use the Series Mode of the developmental version of the simulator to determine which is the best XI for each country, and then play them all off against each other who see who has the best all-time ODI XI.

20 FEB 12: The next of the great allrounders that the flash cricket simulator will look at in our quest to determine the world's best is Shane Watson.

The blond Australian has the best batting stats of any of the contenders in this simulation, with a batting average of 43.15 and a strike rate just under 90. The most interesting aspect of putting Watson in the simulation is that is gives us a better idea as to how important batting average is. Watson is only five behind the mighty Kapil Dev in strike rate but has an average 20 points higher - will this help him?

02 FEB 12: Bad news for Zimbabwe fans - the flash cricket simulator is not giving the men in red much chance of knocking over the world cup semifinalists in their own back yard. We ran 1,000 matches in the simulator's Series Mode and the Black Caps won a thundering 871 of them, getting upset only 129 times by the Africans.

Martin Guptill is expected to top score for New Zealand, with 23.2% chance of doing so if the Black Caps bat first and a 26.8% chance if they chase. Brendan Taylor has the best chance of topscoring for Zimbabwe, with a 21.4% chance if they bat first and 23% if they chase.

30 JAN 12: With several allrounders looked at now, the flash cricket simulator still hasn't found anyone that can defeat the mighty Kapil Dev. Today's effort comes from someone whose numbers are truly impressive across the board: the South African Shaun Pollock. With a batting strike rate of 86.69, Pollock is one of the few allrounders in this simulation who comes within ten points of Dev, and his batting average is slightly higher. With an almost identical bowling economy rate to Dev and with a strike rate four points better, Pollock has the edge on Dev in two of the four categories and is only behind on batting strike rate.

24 JAN 12: I was halfway through programming the Premium version of the flash cricket simulator when I decided to take a break and run a simulation around my favourite childhood player, Andrew Jones. The New Zealand batsman was an enigma on a number of levels. Most obviously, he had a technique to rival Shivnarine Chanderpaul in its uniqueness, with leaping blocks to short balls and an unusual off-drive. Also like Chanderpaul, Jones was a highly effective batsman, averaging over 35 in 87 ODIs.

19 JAN 11: With Sir Richard Hadlee already accounted for, the flash cricket simulator turns its attention to the other one of the legendary Kiwi allrounders, Chris Cairns. Like Andrew Flintoff, Cairns's career was bedevilled by injuries, robbing One Day International cricket of one of its brightest stars. Fortunately there are no injuries in the simulator, so Cairns is free to play six hundred matches against the other allrounders.