Women's achievements in cricket including inventing round-arm bowling and participating in the first World Cup are being highlighted in a sports exhibition.

The pioneering spirit of women in the sport began in 1874 in Bendigo, Victoria with the first recorded game played in Australia.

Almost 100 years after that first game, women were making international history by participating the first World Cup in the sport in England, with seven teams competing.

Both at home and abroad, women were establishing themselves as pioneers on the pitch, creating a style of play that would change how men approached the game.

It is this history that curator of Bowral Bradman Museum, David Wells, has presented in an exhibition called Women's Cricket: Pioneers to T20 Champions.

To mark the two women's one-day international matches at Bradman Oval in November last year, the exhibition has been created to showcase the talent of female Australian players and map the history of the sport from a female perspective.

A Victorian 2nd XI team photographed in 1930. Regular state competition between teams had begun as early as the 1920s. ( Supplied: Bradman Museum Trust Collection )

How women created cricket history and influenced today's game

"It's interesting how many firsts are associated in cricket with the women's game," Mr Wells told 702 ABC Sydney's Dominic Knight.

"One of them is that women invented round-arm bowling and they did this out of sheer necessity because of their crinoline skirts.

"They couldn't bowl underarm in the early 1800s like the rest of the men were because they simply couldn't negotiate the width of their skirts."

According to Mr Wells, a woman by the name of Christina Wiles, of Kent, in 1807 bowled round-arm deliveries to her brother, starting a specific style which would overtake the underarm bowling style which dominated.

"They discovered that, in doing that, they could get a bit more purchase on the ball, and they could make the ball move off the wicket, and so the men copied them."

Mr Wells said while cricket had often been viewed as a male dominated sport, it was the men who had followed in the footsteps of female pioneers on the pitch.

"Cricket was seen as a game of Empire and it was seen as something that had been sanctioned by the aristocracy in England, so the fact that women played was seen quite happily alongside the male game," he said.

"Their mode of dress though didn't really allow them to excel themselves and, in fact, in many ways that stayed the case right through until the 1970s."

While the dress code at the time hampered the sporting range and mobility for women, Mr Wells said advances in the sport had allowed for a more equal playing field today.

"These days the women wear pretty much what the men wear and they're equally athletic and equally proficient at the game because of it."

Australia's first cricket World Cup team played in England in 1973. Australia was defeated by England in the final. ( Supplied: Bradman Museum Trust Collection )

A history of firsts: how women set the records in cricket

It was in 1958 that Australian cricketer Betty Wilson, recently inducted into the International Cricket Council's Hall of Fame, made history for both genders by making the first ever century by any Test player while also taking 10 wickets in the same test.

Another 40 years after this, Belinda Clark, who has been described as "one of our most proficient players of all time", became the first player to score 200 runs in a one-day international event.

In between the impressive feats of these two players, other chapters of cricket history were being made further abroad.

"The very first World Cup was an all-women's affair in England in 1973," Mr Wells said.

"It predated the men's first World Cup by two years."

A look at the timeline of women's cricketing for Australia shows the momentum and record of achievement that has superseded the many historic firsts made by players.

In both the World Cup and T20 arenas, the Australian Southern Stars women's side has claimed victory numerous times and proven their experience on the pitch.

Winning their first World Cup in 1978, there were more wins in 1982 and 1988, again in 1997 and 2005 before claiming victory most recently in India in 2013.

Last year, success at the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh reconfirmed the title of dual world champions.