Smith tops Kohli, Stoinis in IPL

Steve Smith has helped Rajasthan Royals to their first win of the IPL season as his side beat Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets.

Smith scored a steady 38 from 31 balls but was unable to see his side over the line after being dismissed in the penultimate over when he was caught at long on by Umesh Yadav trying to hit Mohammed Siraj for the six runs needed to win the game.

The former Test skipper looked furious as he departed the field, but can take solace from chalking up his highest score of the competition so far as he continues his comeback to top level cricket after a 12-month ban.

Australia allrounder Marcus Stoinis posted an unbeaten 31 from 28 balls for RCB in his first game of the tournament having flown directly from Dubai after playing his part in the 5-0 ODI whitewash over Pakistan.

Rahul Tripathi sealed the victory by clearing the rope with a ball to spare after England's Jos Buttler had laid the foundations with an impressive 59 that included eight fours and a six from 43 deliveries.

Shreyas Gopal was the hero with the ball for Rajasthan, taking 3-12 from his four overs, including the vital wickets of Kohli (23) and AB de Villiers (13).

Bangalore remain winless and their hopes of playing in the finals were described by captain Kohli as "really bad".

Kohli was disappointed by the way his side fielded having seen a number of catches go down.

"If we make that many mistakes then you are going to fall on the losing side," Kohli said after the game.

"In a tournament like the IPL, when you have no momentum then these things can happen.

"The team hasn't got off to a good start and these things look really bad but we have to keep believing that we can turn things around."

"We will sit down and talk to see how we can balance our team.

"Hopefully we will get fresh guys in and they can give a match-winning performance."