Building on the work of Yang et al. in 2011, the finite difference method and the Boussinesq approximation were applied to solve the time‐dependent Navier‐Stokes, convection diffusion and continuity equations in spherical coordinates. An idealized condition, the mass transfer from a neutrally buoyant sphere in a horizontal simple shear flow with natural convection was numerically simulated for the first time in this work. In the hybrid transfer case, the outwardly spiraling streamlines enhanced the transfer process, but the counter‐gravity spiraling streamlines near the sphere hindered the natural convection and the spatial dilution action weakened the natural convection transfer process. These competing effects led to nonmonotonic behavior of the Nusselt number with Reynolds number. Results from these previously undocumented cases were summarized into correlations for predicting Nusselt numbers at finite Reynolds numbers for various Grashof and Prandtl numbers. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 2816–2827, 2018