The opening stanza of the 2022 Women's Cricket World Cup at the Bay Oval set the scene for an amazing month of the best women's players in the world showcasing their talents to a huge international television audience.

While Covid pandemic regulations saw very restricted crowd for much of the month-long tournament, the competition was intense, with many of the results going down to the wire.

Australia completely dominated the competition to return home over the ditch with their seventh ICC Women's Cricket World Cup trophy, without really being challenged in their nine encounters.

However, the battle to make the playoffs produced some dramatic cricket from the other seven contenders.

The closeness of the competition in many of the round robin games, lay with just eight teams taking part in the showcase of the women's cricket game.

Sideline Sid will long remember the tears of joy on display from the WCWC debutants Bangladesh, after they bowled Pakistan out nine runs short of their target, to claim their first WCWC win.

While Australia cruised through the preliminaries and dispatched the West Indies by 157 runs in their semi-final - England only reached the title decider after playing their last four matches on a tightrope of defeat, after losing their opening three matches.

England provided the White Ferns with another heartbreaking defeat, also getting past India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The English finally hit their straps in their semi-final against South Africa.

Batting first, England posted an impressive 305 for the loss of three wickets, before bowling the team from the African continent out for 156, to claim a place in the 2022 Women's Cricket World Cup Final.

Australia stamped their authority on the WCWC title match from the opening ball.

Their first wicket fell at the 160 run mark when Rachael Haynes removed for 68.

Alyssa Healey and Beth Mooney continued the blitzkrieg, before Mooney fell to a catch with 62 runs to her name.

The hero of the Australian massive total of 356 for the loss of five wickets was opening batter Alyssa Healey, who carried her bat to 170 not out off 138 balls.

England were always playing catch-up and lost their first wicket with just 12 runs on the board.

Batting at four, Natilie Sciver was the shining light of the England reply, being left stranded on an unbeaten 148 runs when her side was bowled out for 285.

For all the high drama and non-stop action, the disappointments of the 2022 WCWC were New Zealand, who failed to make the post-section phase of competition for the second Women's Cricket World Cup in a row.

Expectations were high for the hosts, after pre-tournament ODI series win over India and chasing down a 300 plus score against Australia in a warm-up match.

The first-up one wicket loss to the West Indies in the opening match at the Bay Oval was compounded by a trouncing from Australia, and South Africa and England beating us by two and one wickets respectively.

After New Zealand's patchy performance at the 2022 WCWC, there is likely to be a changing of the guard in the White Ferns, with several youngsters waiting in the wings, including Western Bay of Plenty all-rounder Nensi Patel.

Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz