At stumps, Samson was not out on 100 and giving him company at the other end was Prasanth Parameswaran on 13.
Besides Samson scoring a century, only two other batsmen in Abhishek Hegde (26) and Sachin Baby (19) could reach the double-figure mark today even as Himachal Pradesh bowlers wreaked havoc.
Rishi Dhawan was the pick of the bowlers for Himachal with figures of three for 56. Vikramjeet Malik (2 for 43) and Gurvinder Singh (2 for 47) chipped in with two wickets apiece.
Opting to bat, Kerala could never recover from a disastrous start. And it was the lone batsman in Samson, who held on to his ground even as wickets kept falling at the other end.
Towards the end of day one, Samson managed to find an able support in Parameswaran and the duo put up 51 runs together for the unbroken ninth wicket to provide some stability to the visitors.
In another Group C match at Jammu, Jharkhand bowled out Jammu and Kashmir for 195 before ending the opening day of their four-day Ranji Trophy match at 81 for one at the Gandhi Memorial Science College Ground.
Jharkhand trail J&K by 114 runs with nine wickets in hand, with Rameez Nemat (batting 42) and Rahul Shukla, yet to open his account, at the crease.
Shankar Rao (3/50) and Shahbaz Nadeem (3/50), who plays for Delhi Daredevils in IPL, took three wickets each, while Sunny Gupta claimed two for 37 to put Jharkhand on top against the hosts. MORE
