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Steve Smith's hopes of making a third successive half-century were dashed but his Rajasthan Royals came away with the IPL win over the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Rajasthan Royals have overcome Steve Smith's early dismissal to see off the Kolkata Knight Riders, whose opener Chris Lynn misfired with a duck in the Indian Premier League clash.

Smith had been hoping for his third half-century in as many matches for the Royals but it wasn't to be after he was bowled for two by Sunil Narine.

Struggling Rajasthan won by three wickets after chasing down the out-of-form Knight Riders' 175 with four balls to spare at Kolkata's Eden Gardens on Thursday night.

Big-hitting Queenslander Lynn was the first wicket to fall, bowled by Rajasthan's Varun Aaron on the third ball of the match.

Dinesh Karthik came to the rescue for the home side and smashed an unbeaten 97 from just 50 balls but ran out of overs to post the century.

Openers Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson had Rajasthan off to a strong start with a 56-run stand off 36 balls before a Sunil Narine delivery caught Rahane lbw.

Narine struck again two overs later when he bowled Smith, while England's Ben Stokes could only manage 11 before he was caught off a delivery by Piyush Chawla, who did the most damage for Rajasthan with 3-20.

But a spirited 47 from 31 balls from Riyan Parag and an unbeaten 27 off 12 from Jofra Archer put the Royals into a winning position.

The win lifted Rajasthan off the bottom of the table into seventh place and one below Kolkata, who suffered their sixth straight loss.