Chennai, Oct 21 (IANS) Chennaiyin FC beat Kerala Blasters FC 2-1 in an Indian Super League (ISL) match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here Tuesday.
Elano Blumer (14th minute) and Bernard Mendy (63rd) scored for the hosts while Iain Hume came up with the lone goal for Kerala Blasters in the 50th minute.
The Chennaiyin side went on the offensive from the beginning and was rewarded with a spot kick after defender Gurwinder Singh made a flying tackle on Abhishek Das. Brazilian international Elano made no mistake in placing the ball to the right hand bottom corner of the goal to make it 1-0 for his side.
Kerala Blasters worked hard to try and find an equaliser but a strong Chennaiyin defence managed to thwart their attempts till the 50th minute when Hume scored a goal off a Victor Herrero Forcada corner to make it 1-1.
It took another 13 minutes for Chennai to regain the lead as Mendy attempted a bicycle kick to score after Elano's free-kick was directed towards the French defender through a header by Harmanjot Khabra.
Kerala Blasters failed to find the net despite making several chances later on.
With this win, Chennaiyin are now in second spot in the standings with six points from two matches while Kerala, still without points from two matches, are lying at the bottom.