ESPNcricinfo have decided to reopen a poll between Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli to help the determine the greatest T20 player of all time after controversy over its initial result.

Gayle had initially been declared the winner of their quarter-final by an extraordinarily tight margin, securing 50.02 per cent of the vote – a gap of 57 votes in a contest in which over 130,000 votes were cast. However, fans of the India captain on Twitter soon complained that when at the poll’s scheduled close – 6.30am GMT – ESPNcricinfo’s own poll tracker showed Kohli to be slightly ahead.

The hashtag #ShameOnESPNcricinfo started trending on Twitter as fans voiced their displeasure, and the cricket website have since bowed to pressure and reopened the poll, expressing “regret” for “the confusion it has caused”.

“We have seen a Twitter storm rage over one of the quarter-final match-ups of the #GreatestT20Player challenge, involving Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle, which ended with Gayle winning by the slenderest of margins,” ESPNcricinfo tweeted. “We would like the place the facts on record.

“While the poll was closed at the time specified (6.30am GMT on May 1) and at that time Kohli was leading, there was a lag in the polling engine and some of the votes reflected on the system a couple of hours later. We fully understand and regret the confusion it has caused.

“Since this is a readers’ poll and we want to transparently find out our readers’ choice, we are reopening the voting for this quarter-final match-up. The poll will be open till 6.30am GMT on Monday, May 4.”

At the time of writing, Kohli is shown as having received 51 per cent of 137,412 votes cast.